Mason Counseling and Psychological Services

Anxiety
The Self-Help Resource Library is a service of CAPS

The Self-Help Resource Library provides a media library of personal growth and academic skills programs available to students, faculty, and staff at George Mason University. Media programs may be used in the Learning Services media lab during the hours the lab is open. Faculty and staff at Mason may check out programs overnight or over a weekend. Students may check out programs to use for classroom or group presentations. These programs are not for sale or rent or otherwise available to persons outside of the University. If the program is marked with an asterisk (*), ask the receptionist for the handout or written materials that accompany it.

A 10-Week Recovery Program for Anxiety (15-20 min.)
A comprehensive anxiety-management program for individuals or groups. This ten-tape audio recovery program helps people overcome panic disorder, agoraphobia, social and generalized anxiety, and phobias. (audio)

Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks (own pace)
R. Reid Wilson, an international expert in panic and anxiety disorders offers a straight forward and effective self-help program for overcoming panic and coping with anxiety and fears. (book)

Emotion and Pain: Understanding Self-Injury (24 min.)
This video is a compelling and in-depth look at the phenomenon of "cutting," a disorder whereby people harm themselves to relieve stress from abuse, trauma, and other unmanageable emotions. Though the majority of sufferers are women, millions of people throughout the world cut themselves to feel some control over their lives. Recently, a number of celebrities have come forward about their own struggles with self-injury. This tape is best used with the assistance of a counselor. (Video)

Hypnosis to End Anxiety and Panic Attacks (51 min.*)
Recognizing the physical symptoms of anxiety can be the first step in stopping panic attacks. One side describes the physical symptoms of panic and the medical explanations for them, the other takes the listener through an hypnotic exercise allowing the listener to counter-attack his/her fears. (audio)

Overcoming Anxiety (120 min.*)
These 4 tapes explain anxiety as both a psychological and physiological phenomenon, and describe the steps to take to alleviate its effects. (audio)

Overcoming Panic, Anxiety and Phobias (own pace)
This book on anxiety has no jargon, advances no theoretical claims, avoids the usual disparaging remarks about medical treatments, and makes no unrealistic promises. It will certainly help those who want to take an active role in their own treatment. (book)

Skin Deep: Understanding Self-Injury (21 min.)
Each year nearly two million people injure their own bodies using knives, scissors, glass cigarettes, candles, razors-in, fact, practically any destructive item they can find. Through interviews with patients and mental health professionals and footage of actual therapy sessions, this compelling program seeks to understand a deeply disturbed and often secretive mental disorder that affects many teens and young adults. This tape is best used with the assistance of a counselor. (Video)

The Anxiety Disease (own pace)
Anxiety attacks are not always psychological, sometimes they indicate a disease that can now be controlled. The more unexpected and unprovoked the attacks, the more likely the victim is suffering from a biologically beset disease. In this book, Dr. Sheehan introduces quizzes that will help you determine whether your anxiety is caused by normal stress or is the result of a genetically influenced physical disorder. (book)

Understanding Social Anxiety Disorder (26 min.)
This video discusses the symptoms of social anxiety disorder through testimonials of people who have suffered from social anxiety and their family members. It also discusses the impact this disorder can have on one's overall functioning and relationships and the effectiveness of treatment. (Video)

Worry -- Controlling it and Using it Wisely (3 hrs.)
Worry consumes time and energy, too often isolates us from friends and family, prevents us from solving the real problems that are behind the act of worrying. These tapes examine the distinctions between different forms of worry, showing which are protective and productive and which handicap achievement and pleasure, and maps out the most effective strategies for change. (Audio)

Cognitive Control (35-60 min.*)
Designed to reduce stress, irrational thoughts and pain through a series of cognitive exercises. This 5- tape series will help you combat negative and distorted thoughts. (audio)

Fears and Anxieties (30 min.*)
They're common fears, but that doesn't make them any easier to deal with. Explore the fear of rejection, fear of failure, and the uneasiness of asking someone out on a date. Discover some tips for overcoming these fears. (video)

Hope and Solutions for OCD (120 min.)
This video about obsessive compulsive disorder with some straight forward solutions, answers, and advice for individuals who have OCD, their families, health care professionals, and school personnel. Four experts – a psychiatrist, a consumer and advocate, an educational psychologist and a clinical psychologist – speak out on their specialty. This tape is best used with the assistance of a counselor. (Video)

Master Your Panic and Take Back Your Life (own pace)
This practical, self-empowering book parallels an actual treatment program for overcoming debilitating panic attacks. Readers are guided, step-by- step, through twelve self-help ‘treatment sessions.’ Proven, research-based methods are presented in easy-to-follow instructions, accompanied by numerous case examples. Readers who conscientiously follow the procedures gain a thorough understanding of the disorder and its underpinnings, and can actually resolve the panic in their own lives. (book)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (30 min.)
Post-traumatic stress disorder was originally used with Vietnam veterans, now anyone who has experienced a deeply traumatic experience may develop PTSD. Hear what people who are living with PTSD have to say about it. (video)

The Worried Well: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (15 min,)
Intrusive, repetitive thoughts, often of disturbing nature, are the symptoms of the anxiety-related condition, OCD. In this program, an 18-year-old woman shares her compulsion to perform daily rituals, and a man tells of his torment by the obsessive belief that he has killed someone. (video)

The Worried Well: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (15 min.*)
This program examines anxiety symptoms experienced following a traumatic event. One man, who witnessed the deaths of his two teenage daughters, and another man shot in an IRA ambush, give highly personal accounts of the behavioral changes experienced as a result of the traumas. An expert from a hospital traumatic stress unit tells why she supports the view that the condition does, indeed, exist. (video)

The Worried Well: Self-Harm (15 min.*)
One person in 600 treated by an emergency unit is a victim of self-harm -- surely the most disturbing of all anxiety-related disorders. Its victims compulsively cut, burn, or strike themselves to relieve unresolved anxieties. This program shows how victims carry the burden of guilt and shame associated with their actions. Two women, who have regularly harmed themselves for years, share their tragic personal experiences. An expert from a hospital crisis recovery unit explains the theories behind the condition and discusses various treatments. (video)

The Worried Well: Panic Attacks (15 min.)
This program shows panic attacks as symptoms of other stress-related conditions -- specific phobias, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorders -- and also as a separate condition. A housewife and businessman tell how panic attacks placed limitations on their lives. A specialist in behavioral psychotherapy explains how to identify and treat panic attacks. (video)

When Panic Strikes (19 min.)
Those who experience panic attacks can lead normal lives. This video portrays one woman's panic attack, diagnosis and treatment. (Video)