Dr. Leahy divides his time equally between New York City and Falls Village. In the city, he is a clinical professor in psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. In Falls Village, he spends most of his time writing and hiking on the Appalachian Trail with his wife and their dog. Though "The Worry Cure" is his first general audience book, he has previously written or edited 13 clinical books on subjects such as depression, bipolar disorder and therapy techniques.
In a recent interview, Dr. Leahy called writing "The Worry Cure," more fun than writing clinical texts. "I felt I could put a little bit of humor in it because people who are anxious or worried are already having a hard time, so I thought, 'add a little lightness but also make it informative.' I also felt like I had to write it like I was talking to the person, but in a way that's understandable," he said.

In his 25 years as a therapist he realized that a lot of patients come in with anxiety, depression or marital problems and that a core feature for all of them is worry. "Research shows that if you treat worry effectively you reduce depression and anxiety, and there really hasn't been anything out there that brings together the state of the art work on worry," he said about the need for a book on the subject.

Dr. Leahy plans to give his book to clients to aid in their treatment. He's had pre-publication copies sitting in his waiting room and they have been quite popular. "Some patients would come in an hour before their session to sit and read the book," he said.
"Worry is a core problem and it's the kind of problem that persists for years for many people. Thirty-eight percent of people worry every day, and worry for many people leads to depression. They worry themselves into depression," he said.

A lot of worriers can develop physical problems as a result of their mental anguish, from stomach problems and irritable bowel syndrome to aches, pains, tension and insomnia. In other words, people often worry themselves sick.

"People who worry also tend to have headaches and other general vague complaints. A lot of worriers will go to their doctor for physical complaints that are actually related to their worrying," said Dr. Leahy.

This is a more prevalent problem than it was in the past. The world moves faster and there is more to worry about. "The average high school and college student in the late 1990s is as anxious as the average psychiatric patient in the 1960s," said Dr. Leahy.

He blames part of the problem on progress and people having more choices than they used to, which leads to a tendency to be less satisfied with the choices made. "There are a lot more uncertainties and a lot less social connectedness than people used to have," he said.
Dr. Leahy related an interesting anecdote from when he does lecture tours in Europe. "What strikes me is that here in the U.S., people talk about somebody 'working like a dog,' but in Europe they talk about people 'working like an American.'"

"There's a lot more balance in the lives of Europeans. The average French or German worker gets six weeks' vacation, while the average American may take two or three weeks. Americans work more hours than almost any other group in the world. In Europe, the social welfare benefits provide a lot more security for people, so they are not as worried about being able to pay for their illnesses or have a pension when they get older," he said.

Worry, in most cases, is not even effective, according to Dr. Leahy. Eighty-five percent of people's worries, such as 'will I have fun at the party?' or 'will I get stuck in traffic?' never materialize as issues. "When you worry, you're living in a future world that may not ever occur. Just because you don't know what a future outcome will be doesn't mean it's going to be negative," he said.

Dr. Leahy doesn't see his book replacing other effective tools, such as therapy and medication. "What I wanted to do is to bring to the public awareness a number of different approaches, which I call cognitive therapy, that have been shown to be effective for anxiety and are new. Probably 99 percent of therapists in America don't know about these things. So there are a lot of new, effective and interesting treatments.

"The research shows that people can get better with effective cognitive therapy at the same rate as with anti-anxiety medication," he continued. "The benefit of cognitive therapy is that you don't get addicted to a medication-not everybody that takes medication gets addicted, but if you go off anti-anxiety medication you are likely to have a rebound of your symptoms. That's not true with cognitive therapy; people maintain the benefits for a long period of time. That's not true with medication because you don't really learn anything when you take a medication. You may feel less physical arousal, but you don't learn any new tools-pills don't give you skills," he said.
Cognitive therapy is a phrase Dr. Leahy uses to describe the teaching of behavior changing thought patterns. "When you become anxious, it activates certain ways of thinking, and certain ways of thinking will make you more anxious. So, the worrier is more likely to perceive threat and underestimate his or her ability to handle a threat," explained Dr. Leahy.

Cognitive therapy is based on the fact that the way you think is going to affect the way you feel, and that changing the way you think and act can change your anxiety.

The steps outlined in the book include dismantling unproductive worry and turning productive worry into action; accepting reality and using constructive discomfort and successful imperfection to your benefit; getting to the core of your worry; dealing with unpleasant emotions rather than just worrying about them, and using time more effectively, not in a multitasking way but in an enjoying life way.

Dr. Leahy developed the techniques in "The Worry Cure" during his years of treating patients and also "from researchers all over the world who have done work on worry. I've incorporated the best of the best, which I feel really good about," he said.

In the book, Dr. Leahy asserts that people worry because they are trying to eliminate uncertainty, because they think that if they don't worry they will let their guard down and bad things will happen.

"Understanding why you worry is a key part of this book, as is understanding why some advice is bad, such as 'believe in yourself' and 'stop thinking.' This is terrible advice because it doesn't work and it makes the worrier feel worse," said the doctor.

"I think a lot of worriers want to understand things. In the book I give simple, straightforward practical advice that you can use right now. Every single step is something that you can do right now, you can live in the present moment right now, you can make a distinction between productive and unproductive worry right now," he said.

"What this book does is something I don't do directly with patients and that is to give people an understanding why they worry," he said.

Dr. Leahy has been a periodic worrier, sometimes thinking, "Am I going to get all this work done?" but, he said, "What I do is make my to-do list and I start working on it. I have also accepted limitations, I'm not going to get everything done that I can think about doing."

Response to the book has been great so far. "People who read the book think, 'That makes so much sense, I understand that,'" he said of the easy-to-read, instruction-like guide.

The book teaches readers valuable techniques such as how to turn a perceived failure into an opportunity for change, how to learn from your mistakes and how to tell the difference between productive and unproductive worry.

For more information, Dr. Leahy's Web site is www.CognitiveTherapyNYC.com .


This article can be found at:
http://www.countytimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15793857&BRD=2303&PAG=461&dept_id=569807&rfi=6