Life is challenging enough without those self-defeating thoughts determining your choices. It really gets tough when your well-intentioned friends and family give you useless platitudes. "Stop dwelling it on it." "Think positively." "That's not such a big problem." "Why are you obsessing over this?" But your friends and family don't understand that their well-intentioned advice has no effect on the anxiety or sadness you find yourself stuck in. Medication for anxiety or panic attacks does not solve the problem, but can become a crutch that you have to have with you at all times "just in case." And because the "just in case" times keep happening, they become more frequent, creating greater need for medication which, again in the vicious cycle, does not fix the problem.
I am not, however, "anti-medication." There are instances when medication may need to play a supporting role in our exploration of your problems. We are not just physical creatures, nor are we just cognitive ones. There is "mind-body" connection that can not be overlooked when we explore your feelings and choices. Some other factors that play a significant role are diet, exercise, meditation, and sleep.
Here's the good news:  It is possible to have a quiet mind, to live without being stuck in worry mode. You can feel more serenity, have more joy in your life. My goal is to help you make the complicated problems of your life easier to understand and change. Practice really does "make perfect," and you may have perfected worrying or feeling stressed. But the right kind of deliberate practice can change the way you think, feel, and behave. It simply is not necessary to waste another day of your life in a limited world of fear.

Here is a must-read if you believe you have no choice but to live with depression or anxiety. It is a Newsweek book review by a researcher who explains how the plasticity of our brains (i.e., the ability of our brains to change physically) can lead to greater control of our emotions. It is a great description of why I use cognitive-behavioral therapy and teach mindfulness.

Here's a brief summary of a surprising appraisal of medication for depression and anxiety.

• Live up to your potential.

• Live with more peace.

• Build stronger relationships.
• Find more meaning in your life.
• Live with more creativity and joy.