I'm not sure how everyone else feels about getting past December and into January and the months ahead, but I for one get a feeling of new possibilities and optimism of the new year in front of us. Anxiety BC is part of the BC Partners for mental health and January is our time to formulate our plans for the new fiscal year that starts on April 1st.
We are especially excited about this year as we will have some major additions to the website. Not only are we going to freshen up the look of the homepage, but we've also worked to make the navigation more user friendly. The new addition that we will unveil this spring is the comprehensive "youth and young adult" 
section, which will be accessible from our website but be very much a stand-alone section that is geared towards one of the most vulnerable populations when it comes to mental health concerns. The site has been carefully crafted to have it's own look and feel, but also provide the CBT-based self help materials that Anxiety BC is known for.
The second major section that has been created for the website is the new perinatal 
section. We have been hard at work over the course of last year creating the content for these two sections and now we will be adding the multimedia components such as video clips.
On another note we have added a few new team members on our Strides editorial board and we have had many conversations around providing some fresh new ideas to enhance the newsletter. We will be making some additions over the course of this year and we hope to hear back from our readers.
In closing, I would like to thank all of you that have been supporters of Anxiety BC. We hope that we have been able to be a part of your journey, not only to help you in managing your anxiety but being able to flourish.
Arto Tienaho, Executive Director Anxiety BC
Another Valentine's Day has passed and having an anxiety disorder like Social Anxiety can bring with it more worries. If you have been together with someone for an extended period of time, you may be asking yourself, What is the perfect date? What is the perfect gift? Or if you haven't been with someone for very long, what is an appropriate date? And, if you are single and have no desire to be so, an anxiety disorder can be an extra weight.
Social Anxiety Disorder or any other anxiety disorder does not have to be factor in your social life, they are treatable with evidence based CBT. So if you have a concern reach out to a professional for help. Or, read through our web site for further information on what you can do to help yourself with these highly treatable disorders.
This article was first printed in AnxietyBC's Strides issue in the Fall of 2006. We are republishing it in order to bring more attention to the issue of Social Anxiety Disorder and the fact there is no reason to suffer from it's uncomfortable effects.
The author, Peter Norton, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the University of Houston. He is also a recent recipient of the American Psychological Association's Young Researcher of the Year award in Clinical Psychology. He is the co-author of 
, a self help book for people experiencing problems with anxiety.