ABSTRACT
As mentioned in Chapter 4, the last thing you want to think about is making a decision about what to do to feel better. Everything is harder during this time. Trying to determine what course of action to take, when you are feeling unhinged by too many options already, can feel impossible. In Chapter 4, we outlined the criteria associated with various psychiatric disorders that can underlie scary thoughts to provide a context for the symptoms that you are experiencing. We also indicated that two main factors contribute to whether or not you are experiencing a psychiatric disorder and whether or not you decide to seek professional help: (a) the degree to which scary thoughts interfere with your life, and (b) the degree to which scary thoughts are distressing for you. Now that you have a sense of the degree to which your scary thoughts are associated with life interference and distress, we can weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various treatment options.
