It has always been our goal to spread knowledge about good psychology to as many people as possible.Understanding of psychology and good mental healthcare should not be a privilege for the wealthy. If there are things we know that can be helpful, let’s give away the knowledge.
Unfortunately, some of the information available online or other forms of mediais watered down and designed to be more “catchy” than accurate. The Internet has been an amazing gift to mankind – removing disparities in access to information and giving each of us access to unlimited knowledge. But it gives access to all information - both good and not so good information. For example, we searched online “how to control anxiety.” In less than a second, over 100,000,000 hits. Everything from how to “Overcome anxiety in 3 min,” to paid advertisements for yoga, to herbal remedies, to agency websites, appeared.
How can you tell which links are offering good, research-supported information and which are offering just “catchy” information? Or those sites that could even slow down your progress?
It may take a few minutes of your time, but do a search and look for the science behind the information. Like you would check a contract before signing it or test drive a car before buying it, look into the background of the claims and see if they are supported. We’ll get you started on some research on the treatment of childhood anxiety:
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, sertraline, or a combination in childhood anxiety. Walkup et al., NEJM, 2008.
Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders. Connolly & Bernstein, 2007.
We designed CopingCatParents.com for the purpose of spreading helpful research-supported information to the public. We hope you’ll click around the website and find valuable information there.
Here’s a link to PubMed – it is a library of biomedical research and you can search and find the latest on any condition you choose. Be as specific as you can to find what you are looking for. For example, if you’re interested in knowing about treatment for childhood anxiety, rather than searching “anxiety” or “childhood anxiety” alone, search therapy for childhood anxiety or medications for childhood anxiety or treatment of childhood anxiety to narrow your results.
PubMed:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
When it comes to childhood anxiety, there are a few very reliable associations and agencies dedicated to patient education and research:
Some pop psychology can be really helpful—reflecting a readable form of otherwise complicated but scientifically supported information. Some pop psychology is unfounded. Know the research to know the difference.
