Anxiety is remarkably convincing. When it tells you that something terrible is about to happen, it does not present that as a theory; it presents it as fact. When it insists that people are judging you, or that you will not be able to handle what is coming, or that the worst-case scenario is the most likely one, it does so with a certainty that can be very hard to argue with. This is not a character flaw. It is how anxiety works. And understanding why it does this is often the first step...

If you have come across Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and found the terminology a little puzzling; defusion, acceptance, the observing self; you are not alone. ACT uses some language that sounds abstract at first but points to something surprisingly practical. One of its core concepts, cognitive defusion, is worth understanding in plain terms; because once it clicks, it can genuinely change how you relate to your own mind. What is cognitive fusion? To understand defusion, it helps...

Most of us have had the experience of feeling sad; genuinely, sometimes deeply sad; and then, eventually, feeling better. A loss, a disappointment, a hard week, and then, gradually, the weight lifts. Life moves forward. That is sadness doing what sadness is supposed to do: responding to something difficult, and then releasing. Depression is different. And understanding the difference matters; not to gatekeep who deserves help, but because the two experiences call for different kinds of...