Dr Jodie Lowinger, CEO of The Anxiety Clinic, explains, “Life is filled with ups and downs so pursuing happiness can create unrealistic expectations.”

Christmas cheer: Unwrapping why some people feel joy and others feel sad. Learn how to rewire your Christmas brain to feel good on-demand.

The wait will be over for Year 12s and their families on 14 December, when the HSC 2023 results are released. How to reframe big feelings with Dr Jodie.

December is a full-on time of year for most of us. Our calendars fill up fast with parties, presents to buy, food to make, family to visit — and all while wrapping up work projects in time for the holidays (if you’re fortunate enough to have one).

When you hear someone refer to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), what comes to mind? Unhelpfully, the stereotype and social media memes often focus in on extreme neatness or a phobia of germs, without acknowledging the many ways OCD can present itself in a person’s life and the distressing and debilitating impact it can have. OCD is so much more than being a ‘clean freak’ and can present in often unrecognised ways.

World Mental Health Day 2023 on Tuesday 10 October is a day that empowers and inspires all of us to talk about and raise awareness of mental health issues around the world. It also celebrates the 75th anniversary of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) and World Mental Health Day 2023.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. You're overcome by intense emotions because something feels too stressful or too hard to handle. You’re snappy. You can’t concentrate. You want to shut down. Overwhelm is utterly uncomfortable, like you’re buried, drowning, completely defeated. No one wants to feel this way.

In Australia, around 15% of people aged 16–24 experience an anxiety disorder each year. From school exams and friendships to TikTok, these influential years can have a big impact on one’s mental health. As the parent of a teenager or young person who may feel anxious, it can be tricky to know how best to support them. In this article, Dr Jodie Lowinger, clinical psychologist, creator and author of The Mind Strength Method, and founder and principal of The Anxiety Clinic, provides a guide for parents. 

Courageous parenting is not defined by the absence of fear, it’s simply choosing to allow your child to develop courage and confidence in themselves. Here are FIVE TIPS from the Mind Strength Method for how you can be a courageous parent.

Feeling a bit burnt out in the lead up to this holiday season? You’re not alone. This year has been overwhelming for many and with the festive season around the corner you might be sitting with a level of stress, unease, low mood or even burnout. So what can you do to move from anxiety and stress to resilience and recharge?

Fortunately, there are ways to successfully manage stress and anxiety throughout this busy time of year. Try the following four steps from the Mind Strength Method to help you to curb anxiety and stress, conquer worry and thrive through the festive season.

With final preparations for the HSC exams underway, students could be experiencing heightened stress or anxiety. We all know that this has been a particularly tough year for Year 12 students (and their parents!) with navigating lockdown and home-schooling, so it’s important to have strategies to overcome any exam anxiety. Here are our Nine Strategies to Overcome HSC Exam Anxiety.

This week I spoke to Karl and Allison on the Today Show about the anxiety people are feeling as we exit lockdown. Many of us have been through more than 100 days of lockdown and if you’re in Melbourne, many many more. With restrictions finally being lifted, many of us are thinking, why do I still feel anxious, nervous and general unease? Why don’t I feel myself? Rest assured that unease is a normal, natural part of a change of this nature.

Nearly four in five Australians are suffering from burnout. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. In this blog we share five proven self-care tips to help minimise the impact of burnout.

What’s the difference between stress and anxiety and when is it a problem?
Stress is the normal response our bodies have to any change. It can be positive or negative. It can help us rise to meet challenges. It is what keeps us on our toes, prevents us from making costly mistakes and sharpens our concentration. However, too much stress or experiencing stress over extended periods of time can leave us feeling frazzled, overloaded, exhausted, unappreciated, agitated or over-reactive.

When you experience anxiety and worry, your protector, the amygdala, takes over and directs you towards all kinds of fight or flight driven actions. While these actions may be helpful, even critical to survival, in times of real danger, they are unhelpful in response to a perceived threat or a worry thought. When you respond to a perceived threat as though it were real, you may find yourself engaging in ‘safety behaviours’. 

While you may hear the terms ‘panic attack’ and ‘anxiety attack’ used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. They do share a number of the same symptoms, particularly physical ones such as shortness of breath or a racing heartbeat, but they also differ and psychologists and mental health professionals use these terms for specific conditions.

As the effects of global warming are becoming more apparent in the face of disastrous impacts such as bushfires and floods, we are increasingly aware of the consequences of climate change. For many, this has contributed to or even caused anxiety, particularly in younger people. Here are some steps you can take to help kids and teens cope with climate anxiety and channel their worries into positive actions.

With anxiety at epidemic proportions, there’s a critical need to help people to shift from worry, stress and fear to resilient and effective action. It is my heart-driven mission to help people to feel empowered to alleviate anxiety and build mind strength. But when we talk about anxiety, what exactly do we mean?

This year has been like no other, so if you’re feeling exhausted, stressed or anxious, you are not the only one. A lot of people find this time of year stressful and holiday stress can affect anyone, including children. This time of year, we often focus on others by giving gifts, hosting dinners and sending cards. However, it’s also important to find time for yourself and schedule in some time for self-care.