🎯Three Content Types · One Force Field
Every square belongs to one of three content types — not three levels you climb. Track progress in your Course and Skills Lab.
📘 Learn It Content type
Concepts to absorb.
🛠 Live It Content type
Daily skills and habits.
📣 Share It Content type
Teach, advocate, carry forward.
🛡️Your Force Field — 16 Squares
Deeper detail lives in the Prepared Patient Anxiety Disorders course.
What Anxiety Disorders Are
Brain chemistry plus learned response. Treatable conditions, not personality.
Learn ItWhy Meds Help
SSRIs, SNRIs work over weeks. Buspirone, hydroxyzine, occasional benzos for acute.
Learn ItSpot the Red Flags
Suicidal thoughts with plan = 988 or 911. Severe symptoms not matching anxiety = workup.
Learn ItTriggers
Caffeine, alcohol, sleep loss, stress, certain meds, untreated thyroid.
Learn ItTypes
GAD, panic, social, phobias, OCD, PTSD — each different.
Learn ItMedication Discipline
Don’t skip SSRIs — withdrawal feels worse. Don’t take benzos daily long-term.
Live ItCoping Toolkit
Breathing, grounding, exposure, exercise, sleep, social connection.
Live ItExercise as Medicine
Aerobic exercise rivals SSRIs in some patients. Consistent matters.
Live ItCaffeine + Alcohol
Both fuel anxiety. Reducing them is often life-changing.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
Bring symptom diary, sleep log, medication side effects.
Live ItYour Care Team
PCP, psychiatrist, therapist. Some have all three.
Live ItTherapy Apps
CBT apps (Woebot, Mindshift), meditation apps. Adjuncts not substitutes.
Live ItInsurance & Cost
Therapy often partially covered. Many sliding-scale options.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
Newly diagnosed people fear the diagnosis. Your stability is reassurance.
Share ItFight Stigma
Anxiety treatment is medical. Normalize seeking help.
Share ItResearch & Trials
Psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine, neurostimulation.
Share ItThree things to learn before you actually need them.
Workflow lives in the Prepared Visit Tool. Trackers in your Course.
Which door do I use?
Anxiety is treatable. The ladder helps you tell daily anxiety from a crisis.
Handle at home
- Manageable baseline anxiety with your coping tools
- A panic attack that passed in 20-30 minutes
- Following meds and therapy plan
Log it. Use your tools: breathing, grounding, sleep.
Call the office / message the portal
- Mood and anxiety worsening for >2 weeks despite meds
- Sleep collapsed
- Avoiding more activities than usual
- Side effect on a new medication
Same day. Meds and therapy can be adjusted.
Urgent / Acute care
- Daily panic attacks
- Can’t go to work or school
- Substance use as coping
- Thoughts of self-harm without a plan
Urgent care or crisis appointment.
ER NOW / call 911
- Suicidal thoughts with a plan — call 988
- Severe physical symptoms during panic that don’t match anxiety (chest pain, fainting, severe SOB)
- Psychotic symptoms
- Severe medication reaction
Call 988 or 911. Don’t be alone.
How to describe a new symptom in 30 seconds
What is it?
Plain words.
How bad?
0-10.
When did it start?
Time + what you were doing.
What made it worse?
Movement · food · meds.
What helped?
Even a little.
What else was new?
Fever · med · supplement · stress. The forgotten detail often shifts the diagnosis.
“Panic attacks have been more frequent for 3 weeks, a 7 worst, started after I cut back on my SSRI, sleep makes it worse, deep breathing helps a little, and I’ve been drinking more wine to relax.”
Questions worth asking
Four for every patient, every condition, every visit:
- “Could this be a side effect of one of my medications, a supplement, or something else I’m doing — and should we change that?”
- “Would any non-drug therapy help — physical therapy, meditation, rest, ice or heat?”
- “If I can’t afford this medication or this test, can we talk about samples, alternatives, or a social worker who can help?”
- “What should I be watching for between now and my next visit — and when do I handle it myself, when do I call your office, when do I go to urgent care, and when do I go to the ER?”
Questions specifically for Anxiety Disorders:
- “Am I on the right medication — SSRI, SNRI, buspirone, or another — and at the right dose?”
- “Is the alcohol use related — should we treat both?”
- “CBT, exposure therapy, ACT — what therapy modality fits me?”
- “Can we set a crisis plan — what do I do at 3 AM in a panic attack?”
- “Should we check my thyroid or other medical causes?”