13 Dec
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Last Call for Entries to Elephant in the Room Contest

Tomorrow is the last day to submit an entry to Moment's 2012 Elephant in the Room Contest, which asks: How has anxiety affected you, your family or the Jewish people in general? Three winners will each receive an iPad, and the winning essays will be published in Moment. This year's contest is a partnership between Moment and the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety. Below are a few excerpts from some of the essays we have received so far; submit your own essay on the contest page here or via email at elephant@momentmag.com. "Jews have turned to God through the ages, to their laws, to their cultural life-ways, to their sacred texts--for all of these confer the comforting safety of boundaries.  Yet the sturdiest of walls have gaps, and at the end of each day one...

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12 Dec
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Have Holiday Anxiety?

The holidays--full of candles and songs and goodwill toward all--can also be a stressful time for those with anxiety, filled with the responsibilities of hosting friends and family, negotiating sometimes-tense relationships and reunions, and the pressure of navigating parties and celebrations. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has some good tips for how to manage holiday anxiety, including: Planning the details of travel arrangements beforehand if travel makes you anxious. Knowing when to say no when too many commitments become overwhelming. Establishing a signal with an anxious child, so that she can communicate with you if she's feeling nervous in a crowded place. Avoiding alcohol as a means of stress relief. For more suggestions, visit the Anxiety and Depression Association of America's website. And don't forget--Moment's Elephant in the Room Contest, which asks how anxiety has affected you, your family or the...

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11 Dec
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Elephant in the Room Deadline Approaching

This Friday is the final day to enter Moment's Elephant in the Room Contest! Send us 200-500 words addressing the question: How has anxiety affected you, your family or the Jewish people in general? Three winners will each receive an iPad, and the winning essays will be published in Moment. This year's contest is a partnership between Moment and the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety. Below are some excerpts from a few of the entries we've received so far: "I’m still not over Soon-Yi, but I remain grateful to Woody Allen for making “anxious” at least sound entertaining. I’d have never become a writer if I was calm and grounded. But then, would I have been born Jewish? Christians have faith, Buddhists have inner peace, Muslims have rules. Atheists have science. Jews have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This is what...

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07 Dec
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Annals of Anxiety

How has anxiety affected you, your family or the Jewish people in general? That's the question we're asking in this year's Elephant in the Room Contest, a partnership between Moment and the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety. Below are a few excerpts from some of the entries we've received so far; to submit your own entry, please visit the contest's page or email elephant@momentmag.com. Three winners will each receive an iPad and be published in the pages of Moment. "My father ended up in Stalin's Polish Red Army. My mother, with cunning and resourcefulness, lived through the war years in a gulag in Siberia. They were fighters, both of them. When a problem came up in my home, it was handled with efficiency and pragmatism. That's how I was taught to live. This is the...

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04 Dec
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When Good Anxiety Goes Bad

Moment's 2012 Elephant in the Room Contest, in partnership with the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety, asks readers to tell us how anxiety has affected them, their family or the Jewish people in general. We spoke with Elna Yadin, a psychotherapist at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, about the medical basis and treatment of anxiety. Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation. Can you tell me about the medical basis of anxiety? Do you think the public sees anxiety as a medical condition? We in the profession see it as a medical condition. My background is in experimental neuroscience and then clinical psychology. I definitely look at anxiety as a medical condition with a strong genetic component, with an environmental/experiential component. Take the latest storm, Sandy. People...

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30 Nov
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Is Anxiety Jewish?

Do the Jews own anxiety? That's the question Daniel Smith asked in The New York Times earlier this year, looking at the long history of worrying Jews and concluding: no, but we sure want you to think so. "We, the Jews, have encouraged the world to think of us as anxious," Smith wrote. "We've done this by propagating the figure of the Neurotic Jew—our hysterical clown." In his book, Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, Smith writes about his struggles with anxiety and search for relief. We talked with Smith about the past and future of the anxious Jew. Is the anxious Jew real, or is it a trope? It's both a trope and real. It’s real insofar as the Jewish way of thinking dovetails with an anxious mode of thinking. The Talmudic tradition is one of...

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29 Nov
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The Anxiety Question

Moment's 2012 Elephant in the Room Contest, in partnership with the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety, asks readers to respond to the question: How has anxiety affected you, your family or the Jewish people in general? We spoke with Alies Muskin, executive director of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, about anxiety and the ADAA's work on reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness. Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation. Is anxiety well understood by the public? It’s fairly well understood. We’ve done some surveys over the years that show that there’s an increased awareness prevalence in the media—shows like The Sopranos and Monk. There’s awareness, but there’s a lot of stigma. We’ve done surveys where we’ve asked people, “If your disorder affects you so that you can’t go to work or need to...

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28 Nov
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Athletic Anxiety

Two athletes have received attention lately for their struggles with anxiety disorders: NBA rookie Royce White of the Houston Rockets, and baseball free agent Zack Greinke. White's generalized anxiety disorder manifests in his fear of flying, a hindrance in a profession that requires extensive travel. Last month, White missed training camp in Texas, apparently because of his fear of flying. White is open about his anxiety, and credits the Rockets with offering him support. "They're being very open to helping me in any way that I need and giving me the support I need," he told CNN. Greinke, considered the best free-agent pitcher, struggles with social anxiety, a fact revealed after he left the Kansas City Royals "for personal reasons." Greinke told reporters that he considered leaving baseball because of his anxiety, but treatment and...

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27 Nov
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Moment’s Elephant in the Room Contest

Moment's annual Elephant in the Room Contest asks readers to weigh in on important but seldom-discussed topics. This year's contest, a partnership between Moment and the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety, asks readers to tell us how anxiety has affected them, their family or the Jewish people in general. Though anxiety is often shrouded in secrecy and embarrassment, there have been many highly visible sufferers of the disorder. Here are just a few of the famous names who dealt with anxiety: Charles Darwin: The scientist suffered from myriad health problems, including headaches, exhaustion and anxiety. His health was so precarious that it kept him from social activity. In his 1876 autobiography, Darwin wrote, " I have therefore been compelled for many years to give up all dinner-parties; and this has been somewhat of a deprivation...

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26 Nov
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The Elephant in the Room Contest Asks About Anxiety

Moment's 2012 Elephant in the Room Contest--which asks participants to tell us how anxiety has affected them, their family or the Jewish people in general--is underway. Here are a few excerpts from the entries we've received so far. (And submit your own entry here by December 7.) Mitch Greenman writes about the religious and cultural bases of Jewish anxiety: "Anxiety is the child of hubris. But it is also the mother of science. We have chosen to come to G-d through understanding rather than blind acceptance. We interact with the universe through our minds. Sages have suggested that our intransigence is a gift that angels envy. We all must eventually come to the true place; there is nowhere else to go, but anxiety and discomfort are the incontrovertible outcome of our choice of reason as our way...

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