health & 'wellness Summer Fears Get a handle on anxiety. W ith summer here, many of us breathe a sigh of relief. With the cold of the win- ter months gone, we can comfortably spend more time outside. You might enjoy taking a dip in the pool, hav- ing dinner on an outdoor patio and attending the slew of summer social events such as bar- beques, graduation parties and summer weddings. But for some people with anxiety disorders, the summer season Carolyn can bring about Daitch Ph.D. great distress. Anxiety disorders affect about 40 million Americans age 18 and older — and none of these anxiety disorders go on hiatus to allow anxiety sufferers to fully enjoy the summer season. In her book Anxiety Disorders: The Go-to Guide for Clients and Therapists, psycholo- gist Carolyn Daitch Ph.D., director of the Center for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Farmington Hills, offers a survival guide to understand and manage anxiety across the spec- trum of anxiety disorders. Specific phobias and social anxiety dis- order are two types of anxiety disor- ders that can make summer a season of heightened distress. Specific phobias are an extreme fear of and aversion to a particular thing or situation, such as dogs, snakes, spiders, heights, or the sight of blood or needles. If you have a phobia, you most likely recognize that your fear is not rational. There's no logical reason you can think of for the sight of your phobic object or situation to inspire such extreme terror. But reason with yourself as you might, your extreme fear does not abate. For people with social anxiety disorder, attending social gatherings — big or small — can bring extreme anxiety resulting from a fear of being seen and judged by others or doing Beginner Lessons • Leagues • Organized Practice • Junior Programming • And so much more For more information, please contact the Tennis Department at (248) 352-8000, 250. www0FranklinClub,co111 29360 Northwo§tatrn Highway Southfi@lai Michigan 48034 (20) 362=8000 78 July 26 • 2012 iN 1772580 something that might cause embar- rassment or ridicule. This intense anxiety then triggers the body's nervous system to rev up, causing physical reactions, including blush- ing, sweating, stammering, dizziness or disorientation, shaking hands or heart palpitations. The only remain- ing course of action, it might seem, is to avoid that which you fear. Yet avoidance isn't your only option. If you do suffer from anxiety, treatment is well worth your while. There are many simple and effective treatments for anxiety disorders. Consider Sharon (all names have been changed), who suffers from arachnophobia, the intense fear of spiders. Sharon came to therapy at the insistence of her husband, David. "Boating is David's passion. He loves that boat of his like it's his child," Sharon said in her first ses- sion. "But do you know how many spiders can be on a single boat? I just can't do it. I tried to tolerate it to be with David, but I gave up. So now, we spend most of our weekends apart, David on the boat and me at home." When asked if her spider phobia affected other areas of her life, Sharon responded: "Well, yes, actually, it has gotten worse. Lately, I've stopped garden- ing in the summer, which I used to love. Now that I think about it, I don't really enjoy summers much anymore because I live in abso- lute terror that I'll see a spider when I go outside' After only a summer's worth of psychotherapy, Sharon's once- paralyzing fear of spiders shifted to a tolerable dislike. Summer needn't trigger a hotbed of physical discom- fort and emotional unrest. With tar- geted treatment approaches, you can learn to experience a sense of ease and even pleasure in the situations that you once feared and avoided, and enjoy a life no longer constrained by summer fears. For more information, go to www. anxiety-treatment.com . ❑