The 10 top tips a psychotherapist offers her patients with anxiety include "you will not die from anxiety" and "anxiety is just trying to protect you."

Anxiety can arise at any stage of life and make someone feel unsafe in their mind and body.

Anxiety is one of the world's most common mental health disorders, causing persistent excessive fear and worry that interferes with daily activities.

Watch a Yale University psychologist explain his new supportive parenting anxiety therapy.

The positives of feeling stressed

Worrying about past events and upcoming challenges is not a pleasant experience, but a reasonable amount of stress can bring a lot of good into our lives. In this episode of "The Happiness Lab" with Dr. Laurie Santos, two psychology experts offer tips for resetting one's relationship with stress. Listen and learn how to make stress a positive tool rather than a debilitating emotion.

How do anxiety and stress differ?

This article explains that though “stress” and “anxiety” are often used interchangeably, there are distinct differences between the two. Stress is defined as the body's response to an external trigger and can be classified as acute or chronic. Anxiety, however, tends to be triggered internally by excessive thoughts and judgement. Whereas stress disappears when the trigger is gone, anxiety tends to stick around. If left unchecked, both can escalate into more severe mental health conditions.

How the feared self fuels OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by intrusive thoughts that prompt people to enact compulsions—behaviors intended to relieve the anxiety or stress from the obsession. A significant intrusive thought OCD sufferers endure is the fear they will become a dangerous or immoral person. Therapeutic approaches try to show patients this is just a story that can be set aside.

Stress and anxiety may lead to similar symptoms, but stress is a response to external triggers, while anxiety is persistent, and its symptoms won't disappear once an immediate stressor is gone.

Brain conditions and surgery can cause some individuals to feel no fear

Fear is a survival mechanism that originates in the brain's amygdala, triggering the body's fight-or-flight response. However, in modern society, without the same natural dangers, fear can lead to anxiety and mental health issues when unnecessarily triggered. Understanding individuals without fear may help identify new methods to treat anxiety disorders.

Negative thinking spirals are often the result of uncertainty and anxiety, and can be addressed.

How to avoid a 'bad trip' advice includes relaxing your mind if you experience scary things and not fighting the feeling

In this video, Michael Pollan, author of "This Is Your Mind On Plants," underscores the gaps in existing understanding about the substances and recommends only taking guided experiences, for safety and help. He tackles how psychedelics work, explains microdosing and psychedelic risks, how the substances could be used to treat addiction, and the history of psychedelic stigma.

Top strategies on how to deal with other people's big feelings

This podcast offers insights on how to effectively talk to others when they're experiencing powerful emotions, and how to simultaneously protect yourself in those situations.

Unlike milder fears, phobias may get in the way of proceeding with your life.

Key tips for helping the depressed—including listening without judgment

Major depressive disorder is a clinical diagnosis and is not a lifestyle choice. Those who struggle with depression can express persistent feelings that are difficult to process and make sense of for friends and family. This guide walks through some counterintuitive perspectives, including resisting the urge to force a depressed person to do the things that would make them feel better.

Menopause can exacerbate anxiety

Some research shows that menopause can fuel anxiety and also that preexisting anxiety can boost the chances of experiencing other menopause symptoms, including hot flashes, insomnia, and brain fog. But treatments—including hormone replacement therapy, breathing exercises, and other forms of exercise—can alleviate some of these symptoms.

Stress activates the "fight-or-flight" response when we face threats, a reaction that can help keep us alive.

A licensed therapist shares advice for kindly addressing feelings of irritation in your relationship

All couples are bound to annoy each other, and it's often not caused by ill will. Reflecting on how and when to express pet peeves is important for ultimately building a connection and helping partners not feel attacked. While differences may not always be fully resolved, it can be helpful to discuss paths forward toward a compromise.

How we frame stress—as good or bad—seems to alter how it affects us

This podcast discusses research that indicates stress perception may drastically affect how we respond to it. In research exploring if our stress is presented as diminishing our health versus if we're told it enhances our performance, it will lead to differences in how successful participants are at performing tasks—with the enhancers doing better.

An intense fear must persist for at least six months to be diagnosed as a phobia.

Some claim breathwork can improve mental health, help process trauma, and more

Research shows people who practice breathing exercises see a decrease in depression and stress levels, and that such exercises are about as effective at treating PTSD as conventional approaches. Even something as simple as extending exhales can slow one's heart rate and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

The rise of generative AI could exacerbate anxiety because people may turn to chatbots for constant reassurance.

Easy resets for stress reduction

Individual solutions for burnout, often called “self-care,” can be helpful for managing stress. Harvard researcher Aditi Nerurkar’s 2024 book The Five Resets details a road map for burnout recovery. In this interview she suggests, among other tactics, gaining focus on what matters the most in one’s life, taking breaks from both work and the internet, and making time for practices that strengthen the mind-body connection.

'The Father of Positive Psychology' gives tips on building resilience

People differ in how they respond to setbacks. Famed psychologist Martin Seligman outlines three key pillars for resilience: developing mental toughness by interpreting failures as external and temporary, recognizing and using one’s signature strengths, and cultivating strong relationships that offer support and meaning.

Just a 10-minute mental health break can yield benefits

The US CDC offers recommendations for alleviating stress in daily life. Short 10-minute breaks can significantly improve mental health, especially when used for activities like deep breathing, dancing, or writing down things you are grateful for. Building meaningful relationships, termed "social connectedness," can also alleviate stress and promote resilience.

Using psychedelics to manage a cancer diagnosis

Dr. Roland Griffiths helped lead the revival of psychedelic research, often prescribing the use of psilocybin to address severe depression or anxiety in patients. This podcast explores how Griffiths leaned on his own career after being diagnosed with cancer and facing the prospect of death.

Consuming true crime media can increase stress and anxiety and create a false sense of danger.

Fearology, or the study of fear, explores the difference between stress and fear

Our brains involuntarily respond to our environment and signal alarm when that isn't always needed, triggering responses that include goose bumps. But understanding fear and how to talk our brains into calming down can improve daily life.

What can psychedelics teach us about dying?

Psychedelics have made their way into the world of licensed mental healthcare, and the drugs have been proven to help people process and lessen anxiety and depression. What does this mean for people with terminal illnesses who are afraid of death?

Touch deprivation can heighten anxiety and depression

Pacinian Corpuscles are pressure receptors just under the skin that send signals to the vagus nerve in the brain—that's the cranial nerve which regulates involuntary actions like breathing, heart rate, and the general "fight or flight" response. Activating those receptors can slow the heart, decrease blood pressure, and lead to the release of oxytocin and cortisol. The absence of touch, conversely, can promote negative feelings.

Explore a visually captivating, interactive animation that lets users click through anxiety-inducing scenarios, make choices, and see the repercussions.

Watch actress Kristen Bell discuss her challenges with depression and anxiety

Bell describes how depression can make it difficult to celebrate good news, and how decision fatigue can make simple decisions feel Herculean. She reveals how she wishes she'd discussed these struggles publicly earlier in her career.

Stress and the brain

While an acute stress response is a normal bodily function, the effects of chronic stress can be extremely damaging to the human body. This is particularly true with regard to the brain. This article explores the effects of stress on the human brain, including how chronic stress may lead to psychological conditions such as depression and memory loss.

Psychedelic side effects, including worsening mental health for some patients, give pause

This article explores whether the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drug use is really as good as current research suggests. Scientists are exploring its applications for conditions ranging from the existential crisis that can accompany terminal diagnoses to chronic mental health conditions, including anxiety and PTSD.

How philosophers have approached death throughout history

Philosophers often argue the counterintuitive view that there's actually nothing to fear about death. How do they come to this attitude of acceptance toward fate? This video articulates the views on death from Socrates, Epicurus, and Zhuangzi in a breezy, digestible way.

A psychiatrist warns that chasing happiness can lead to misery

Rafa Euba, a retired consultant psychiatrist, argues that happiness is a vague and abstract concept that is hard to quantify. He suggests accepting that suffering and pain are a normal part of life. An attainable goal for one's life is to attempt to minimize pain, and pursue balance and contentment rather than a false ideal of permanent bliss.

How to build curiosity

Change and uncertainty induce stress, but reframing the unknown into an opportunity for discovery has tangible benefits. Approaching change with curiosity enhances activity in the hippocampus and promotes neuroplasticity, promoting learning and serving as a barrier against anxiety. A neuroscientist explains how embracing the unknown, trying small experiments, and other techniques build curiosity.

See how anxiety disorder rates vary across 200+ countries, with Portugal, Malta, Brazil, and Iran reporting the highest burdens.

Self-care can't fix burnout on its own

Steps such as exercise, breathing, mindful eating, and spending time with friends, can help alleviate the fight-or-flight mode response of the body to alleviate stress, but they don't fix the stressors causing the burnout. To address those, workplaces may need to consider how to better manage workloads and duties.

CBT helps rewire the brain's false beliefs by challenging negative thoughts

Cognitive behavioral therapy identifies how specific situations can trigger distorted core beliefs—often formed early in life—that negatively shape thoughts and behavior. It frequently uses structured questioning that promotes self-reflection to uncover distorted thinking and guide people toward more balanced perspectives.

People with tinnitus should avoid silence—sound-rich environments distract the brain

This podcast from an audiologist discusses common questions about tinnitus. It notes that tinnitus could be described as a phantom sound associated with hyperactivity in the brain. It's linked with loud sound exposures above 85 decibels, hearing loss associated with aging and stress, among other factors.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

Panic attacks are intense fear episodes that often occur without a clear trigger

Unlike typical fear responses to real danger, panic attacks can mimic serious health problems, such as heart attacks. Sweating during a panic attack may seem random, but it's a leftover survival mechanism that made it easier for our ancestors to escape by slipping out of an attacker’s grasp.

Yoga is believed to improve mental health, but studies are not definitive

Many think that yoga's combination of stretching, focused breathing, and contemplation help treat depression and anxiety, but the data has often relied on small, homogenous sample sizes.

Listen to how medical error affected an emergency physician's approach

Emergency physician Dr. Sarah Gray discusses her worst medical error, what she learned from it, and how medical error and the culture around it lead to physician burnout. In addition to lawsuits, medical errors can lead to guilt, shame, anxiety, and fears of embarrassment, so this podcast discusses how sharing such errors and teaching about them can improve care.

Listen to BlackRock's head of behavioral finance, Emily Haisley, explain the psychology of investing—including controlling biases, managing ego, and being prepared for volatility.

An overview of modern clinical research on LSD

Researchers have determined that LSD, taken in a medical setting, decreases anxiety related to "life-threatening disease," reduces brain reactivity to fearful faces, increases the meaning and emotional response derived from music, and more. No complications of LSD administration have been observed in medical settings, though acute adverse effects, including exhaustion, nausea, and difficulty concentrating.

Why might someone want to stay in psychosis?

Author Abigail Gosselin writes that her verbal auditory hallucination, often assumed by others to be harmful or threatening in nature, offered a salve to loneliness, even as it told her to kill herself. This perceived benefit and others Gosselin shares offer insight into why people in psychosis may struggle to adhere to treatment and medication plans.

There’s a psychological explanation for ‘FOMO,’ or the fear of missing out

This video breaks down FOMO—what it is, how it works, and why it happens—showing how social comparison and uncertainty trigger anxiety that pushes people toward risk-taking and constant checking behaviors.

Too little stress can also harm our health because mild or moderate stress—followed by recovery—helps make us resilient.

The science of fear

The Hidden Brain podcast team explores the science of fear by traveling to a haunted house curated by a scientist to investigate what scares us, and why some people enjoy this sensation more than others.

Our ancient fight-or-flight response may contribute to modern ailments

Many common modern diseases humans struggle with may in fact have their origins in our ancient fight-or-flight stress response. Long-term effects of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline—in this case, triggered by things like workplace stressors—can wreak havoc on the delicate internal balance of our organ systems.