Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders

Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders

Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders

The intricacies of anxiety have continued to capture the attention of some of the world’s greatest scientists, scholars, and critical thinkers. In 1953 Rollo May stated in Man’s Search for Himself that the “middle of the twentieth century is more anxiety-ridden than any period since the breakdown of the Middle Ages” (p. 30). If this statement characterized the last century, is it not even more applicable to the dawn of the 21st century with all the social, political, and economic threats that besiege us? Despite an end to the cold war, an era of relative global stability and cooperation, and an unprecedented rise in economic prosperity and technological advances, many in the Western world live in a state of perpetual threat and uncertainty. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2003) approximately 40 million American adults (18%) suffer from an anxiety disorder, with serious mental illness, including the anxiety disorders, costing
an estimated $193 billion in lost personal earnings (Kessler et al., 2008). No wonder the search for highly effective and accessible treatments for the anxiety disorders has become a major health initiative for most developed countries

David A. Clark, Aaron T. Beck

© 2010 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

© 2010 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

www.guilford.com

English