A psychologist shares her personal journey with anxiety, both professionally and as a parent. She discusses the evolutionary benefits of anxiety and its protective mechanisms, but also how excessive anxiety can be debilitating. Through her son's struggles with fear, she explores cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, emphasizing the importance of facing fears directly to overcome them. Her experiences lead her to write self-help books for children and confront her own fear of public speaking using CBT strategies. The talk highlights the difference between feeling afraid and being in danger, advocating for facing fears to break free from anxiety's grip.
Here are the extracted facts in short sentences, without opinions:
1. The speaker became a psychologist in 1987.
2. The speaker had a child, Eli, several years after becoming a psychologist.
3. Eli was anxious as a child and had many fears, including a fear of Disney movie characters, haircuts, shots, splinters, and bees.
4. Eli's parents initially reassured him and helped him avoid the things he was afraid of.
5. Eli's fear level continued to grow, and he started panicking whenever he needed to go outside.
6. Eli was afraid of touching anything made of wood due to his fear of splinters.
7. The speaker took Eli to Fort Ticonderoga, a wooden fort, to help him face his fears.
8. Eli was bribed with money to go outside and face his fears.
9. Eli got stung by a bee, but handled it well.
10. The speaker learned about cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and used it to help Eli overcome his fears.
11. The speaker wrote a self-help book for anxious kids, "What to Do When You Worry Too Much".
12. The speaker was afraid of public speaking, but used CBT techniques to overcome this fear.
13. The speaker used gradual exposure to overcome their fear of public speaking.
14. The speaker identified three common thinking mistakes that contribute to anxiety: overestimating likelihood, catastrophizing, and self-doubt.
15. The speaker presented three tools for overcoming anxiety: exposure, recognizing and correcting thinking mistakes, and externalizing anxiety.
16. The speaker explained how to use these tools to overcome fears, such as gradually facing a fear and challenging negative thoughts.