Before the meeting, medical test, presentation, or difficult conversation, the mind starts asking, 'What if?' Matthew Campbell explains how worst-case rehearsal, avoidance, and reassurance can strengthen anticipatory anxiety - and why useful preparation should eventually give way to the life happening now.

Jennifer Thomas examines the hidden mental health cost of always having to appear strong. For many Black women, chronic racial stress, vigilance, perfectionistic coping, anxiety, depression, grief, and substance use can remain invisible behind high achievement. Good therapy begins by naming the context, not pathologizing survival.