David Russ, PhD, Licensed Practicing Psychologist

Christopher McCarthy, MEd, Licensed Professional Counselor

The Turnaround Audio Program includes:

• Turnaround Program for kids (10 CDs). Each CD is from 20-30 minutes in length with natural breaks if shorter listening times are needed.

• Turnaround Journal, a 74 page workbook for kids. This is full of puzzles, cartoons and fun. Boring was not acceptable to us!

• Chill Kit, relaxation guide for kids (1 CD). Contains 4 different relaxation exercises as well as an original musical score so there is variety.

• Parent Guide, packed full of helpful information and techniques to help parents (2 CDs). Over an hour and a half of in-depth help for parenting this difficult disorder.

•  Free Bonus Gift- Med FAQs- Child - An 80-minute interview with Neuropsychiatrist, Dr. James Lee. Dr. Lee is a Duke University graduate and former professor of Child Psychiatry at Duke. Dr. Russ and Christopher McCarthy interview Dr. Lee and discuss issues related to child anxiety, including the use of medications to treat anxiety and depression in children, causal factors, types of childhood anxiety, and when to seek professional help.

A Personal Word From Turnaround Creator, David Russ

My child had panic attacks.  The anxiety started after she saw several kids get sick with the flu at school. She was 10-years-old. At the time, her reaction didn't seem that unusual. But then it just kept going. We didn't notice at first but it was building steam. It began to "morph" into worries about other things. That summer she had the first of her panic attacks. I could see terror in her eyes. Her mom and I would hold her as she would cry and shake. It was nearly unbearable for me. I can't imagine what it was for her.

I'm a psychologist, I knew about panic. But I knew about panic in the “patient-in-my-office-for-an-hour-once-a-week" way. Now I understood. I was humbled. I really experienced the feeling of helplessness that panic invokes in someone. I vowed in the way that only a father protecting his daughter can promise: I would find a way to free her.

Lots of resources were available. We purchased and tried any that seemed they might fit. To my ongoing surprise they weren't helping (except medication but we never expected that to solve it entirely). She went to counseling but that wasn't a good fit for her. I knew what cured panic. The science is available in any good book on anxiety. I thought I could guide her. Wrong. There was something catastrophically flawed with every treatment program for kids, including "dad-the-psychologist-treatment". I kept trying to make her fit existing books and programs because not one single resource was truly designed for a child with anxiety. Not one. It doesn't matter if you have the absolute miracle cure. If it is not communicated in the language and framework of a child, it won't help.

My colleague, also a dad of an anxious child, and I spent two years working hard to get it right. We believe we've developed an unprecedented resource that speaks to children, by children. Every step of the process, I thought of my daughter. After all, I promised her.

It is an adventure, not lectures that talk at you!

Turnaround is the imaginary story of six anxious children who strike out on a 10-day camping trip to find freedom from their fears. Their leaders are Dr. David, Dr. Chris, and Emily, a teenager who completed the program in years past. One of the boys on the trip is Jordan, who struggles with panic/anxiety attacks. When he tells his story during Day One, your child will immediately identify with his descriptions of panic. Over the 10 days, Jordan learns what panic is and how it affects his body. One of the girls is Brianna who struggles with separation anxiety that can turn into an anxiety attack. They both learn exactly how panic and anxiety attacks are overcome! It is not easy, but the path to freedom is laid out clearly.

Children Learn from other Children

Pioneering child psychologist, Dr. Albert Bandura discovered in his research that children learn best from each other. In Turnaround the main characters are kids! Your child will identify with one or more of the kids in the program and "model" them as they figure out how anxiety works and how to overcome it. Anxiety is confusing and tricky. No one with anxiety wants to think about it. It takes the edge off when it is about the kids in the story. It really helps to get some "distance" from it which is exactly what happens when listening to other kids. We made Turnaround an adventure so kids want to stay engaged. As a parent, I know that keeping their attention is half the battle.

What causes Anxiety and Panic Attacks?

That is difficult to answer specifically because it can vary child to child. But for everyone there are some common denominators. There can be several things that contribute such as, genetics, circumstances, mistaken interpretations, worried family members, chronic stress, illness, and major changes to name a few. Typically, several things line up to create a “perfect storm” that gets things going. Yet with ALL anxiety there are three fundamental factors that are part of the start up and/or keep it going.

Physiological Arousal/Activation

Okay, that is way too clinical sounding. This is where your body goes postal. Your nervous system has launched an amazing chemical and structural network designed to temporarily make you a “super-you”. It keeps us out of trouble. We need something to compensate for all the dumb stuff we might do (or did do in my case-Dr. Russ). Seriously, thank God for this or none of us would have made it to age five. This arousal is often referred to as a "fight or flight" response. It is an action of the sympathetic nervous system. In our program we personified this part of the body with a character named Krank. With anxiety disorders, Krank has fired up in response to false alarms. There is nothing wrong with it, believe it or not. It is doing exactly what it is supposed to do --just at the wrong time!

Subtle Thinking Errors

This is the mental stuff connected to fear. It can be beliefs, assumptions, expectations, images, words, sounds, etc. We are interpreting our lives as we go. (What is important, what is not, what is beautiful, what I need to do, what does that gesture mean, etc.) Our "cognitive world" can be everything from elaborate multilayered epics to transient flashes easily forgotten (this is why sometimes you do not know why you are feeling scared). Our minds are capable of stunning creativity. I just saw Avatar in 3D. Holy Cow. I laughed, started, hated, loved, felt that movie vividly. My poor nervous system was trying to keep up. There were moments when I was part of the movie and other times when I knew I was sitting in a theater watching a movie. When the “thing” came right at me, as far as my nervous system was concerned, I was in the movie. If you think in a certain way, your nervous system will feel it like its real. That is why certain thoughts cause anxiety. Your child may be terrified but from your vantage point there is no danger. It is because their thoughts have activated the fight or flight response and that “trumps” everything. It feels "real" to them. When your child learns how to correctly navigate this and catch how that is part of the problem, he or she can put anxiety on it's ear. (That expression is proof I am getting old....)

Avoiding/Controlling Response

Fear demands a response. Surprisingly, some responses that seem so normal, reasonable, legitimate make the anxiety much worse. Paradox! Fear can really make a compelling case. Shouldn't we avoid things that are dangerous? Unfortunately, the problem fear is based on pure imagination. That kind of fear, “what-if” fear, needs faced. By “what-if” we mean things like “what if I panic in the store", "what if I touch the doorknob and get sick” and so forth; things that are just scary possibilities. When you do not face the fear, the strength of the imagined danger actually grows. It gets scarier. So in an attempt to protect ourselves, we avoid these fears by obsessing, avoiding or creating rituals. But this kind of avoidance or control works just enough to make things worse.

These three components mix to form the perfect storm of anxiety disorders. No one chooses to have an anxiety disorder. Actually the strange symptoms are part on an effort to SOLVE the problem! What happens is that instead of solving the problem the symptoms become part of the problem. They work just enough to keep your child stuck. Panic works. If you listen to it, they won't have panic at school because they won't go to school. So if your child is displaying strange and intense anxiety symptoms they are not trying to BE a problem, they are trying to SOLVE a problem, just not in the right way.

Anxiety is more complicated that this. I am amazed at the variations. But there are always the same fundamental elements. Address those and you have a treatment that is life-changing.

What Cures Anxiety and Panic?

It depends on several factors such as what kind of anxiety, how long it has been a problem, how old someone is, etc. We know what works. Anxiety is very treatable. But it is sneaky so you have to approach it differently than the usual way we all solve problems. We know our program works. We also know that it won't always work. To sell something you have to promote it with strong claims. But let me shoot you straight. Anxiety is a moving target. Nothing will always work. Here is the science: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the best practice for anxiety. It is solid clinical treatment. If our program isn't the final word for you child, keep searching, it will be out there. 

Here is the thing that makes or breaks treatment: Is it delivered effectively? The science is out there, but will your young son or daughter get it? Will it make sense to them? Will they be persuaded to follow thru? That is the $64,000 question. This is where Turnaround stands alone.

I sometimes forget how confusing psychological language and practice seems to my patients. There are a lot of options and it is hard to know which way to turn. Let me try to organize things in a way to help. All treatment available simply addresses the three things we just described above. 

Finding the Off Button for the Fight-or-Flight Response

Learning to manage one’s own nervous system is part of growing up. It is why when a young child is hungry they cry and why adults don’t (at least on the outside-or maybe that is just me cause I still feel like crying on the inside.) Part of curing anxiety is learning how to identify the arousal process right at the very beginning. Notice your shoulders right now. Are they more tense than they need to be? Can you relax them a little bit? That is a simple example of the discipline needed to “chill” the nervous system. Chill is our character that personifies this. This can be breathing, relaxing, eating better, getting exercise, sunshine, sleeping better, etc. This is what medication treats. It puts the brakes on the fight or flight system or at least takes the foot off the accelerator. In Turnaround we start teaching the essential practices on day three and if your child keeps it up, it is transforming. There is no mystery to this. It is learning to breathe in a certain way and learning to relax. Both must be practiced. Hey, think how often getting "kranked up" is practiced! You can't lift weights once or twice and expect to be ripped. You have to train your nervous system.

Correcting the Thinking Glitches

Identifying and disputing anxiety-causing-thinking is also part of all treatment. This is usually the first thing people try to do for anxious kids. We all try to talk our kids out of being scared. We are usually right -seriously, I mean that. (Remember when they used to actually listen to us...those were the days) Isn’t curious why it just seems to bounce off of them? It would be awesome if we could climb inside their little brains and find the right mistake to address. That is what is hard. If you have asked in exasperation, “Why do you think you are feeling this way!?” and got back, “I don’t know?!” we feel you. Actually, for young children they may not yet be developmentally capable to really be able to describe those thinking errors. So we spell it out for them. In Turnaround we devote three days (three of the ten CDs) entirely to this as well various times throughout. The "whacky thoughts" (our name for them) are usually these subtle sneaky little critters. That is why we bring up the most common ones in the program to help spell them out. Sometimes we are obvious about that and sometimes we are sneaky little critters ourselves and do it when no one is looking. I would tell you when but then I would have to “CIA you” and well….

Facing the Beast

With some kinds of anxiety facing one's fear is the main thing to address. It is also the hardest. You have to literally ignore your bodies warning signals. In Turnaround we wait until CD 8 to start kids on this. We want to build up all the resources needed for facing fear. The “psych-speak” for this is exposure and response prevention. Exposure is simply doing something on purpose that causes anxiety. Response prevention is postponing something on purpose that relieves anxiety. You can do this all at once or gradually. It just seems so opposite of what you would want to do when you are anxious! That is why we spend a lot of time talking about it and working up to it. For this to work (and it does) a child has to do this voluntarily. You can know exactly what works but you have to be persuaded that it will work for you. That is where Turnaround is so crucial. It persuades and makes sense to children.

Any treatment your child participates in is addressing one of more of these three issues. In Turnaround we didn't invent the treatment. It is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Read online and you will discover this is the best practice for anxiety with kids, adults, everyone. What we did is translate it into "childish". Hey! That is exactly what I get accused of being! One person who interviewed us asked us where we got our crazy characters. I think it is because we never really grew up. Oh well, at least for once it helps....

Why should you purchase Turnaround?

Ten reasons why should you should get turnaround:

1. It is based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). If you can find a therapist who is trained in CBT and has the materials needed then by all means take your child to see that person. If you don’t have that option or it isn’t a fit for your child, then you need Turnaround.
2. You will pay more for one or two counseling sessions than you will for the complete Turnaround program. If you have insurance, you might get a few more sessions but not many. In fact, you will pay more for a video game console than Turnaround. The best selling adult audio program sells for over $500. For now, this is a seriously good deal. We will raise the price down the road.
3. Anxiety tends to build steam if it is not treated. Most adults with anxiety started feeling anxious as kids. The sooner you address anxiety the easier it is to overcome it. If your child learns the skills to overcome anxiety now they can be free of future anxiety problems. If it is building then the longer it goes the worse it gets.
4. There is literally nothing else like Turnaround. Down to the smallest details it is designed for kids. For example, with rare exception, no one speaks for more than a minute at a time. What is happening is always changing, just like cartoons. Other programs are e-books or adult type lectures. Kids with anxiety don't want to read academic explanations or listen to a boring lecture about something they don't want to think about.  
5. Kids like stories. They like funny characters. They like adventure. Do you know of any other psychological treatment that is anything like that?
6. You will like it…probably. I can promise it is easier than listening to an episode of a certain dinosaur (I know this from experience-I can't get that dang song out of my head!). Although Robots and Finding Nemo beat it hands down they don’t have to also be a psychological treatment!
7. You do not have to become an expert or the resident therapist, you just have to listen along and participate with your child. We know how busy families are so you will have to find the time to do this. That isn't as easy as it might seem. At least you don't have to find time to read a 1000 pages of material. We've read tens of thousands and we still have much to learn. 
8. At the risk of sounding arrogant, we know what we are doing. Just because someone overcame anxiety doesn’t mean they have earned a doctorate in counseling. It is really frustrating to see someone claiming to be an "internationally known expert on overcoming fear" when they have absolutely no credentials. We have been treating people with anxiety for over 30 years between us. We got this.
9. Turnaround provides information and skills that are useful for life period, not just anxiety. What a gift to give your child. It is a fun story but also builds skills and coping methods that are life-changing. We are selling this for a very small price given how much it cost to produce. Even if it helps 25% isn't that worth it?
10. If your child does not find it helpful, send it back. We will give you a refund. We know that is just one more thing in your busy life and if you try to send something back it isn’t as simple as it sounds. But we really will give you your money back. We may not dance with joy but we will give it back! :-)

Comparing to Other programs

We were surprised to discover that nearly all the other programs that claimed to be for anxiety were developed by people who don't have any training, credentials or licenses to practice psychology. Some of them are clearly good business persons. Most of them were anxiety sufferers themselves and have overcome anxiety. That is significant and we applaud them. It takes tremendous strength to bear up under long-term anxiety. We found some of their ideas to be solid. On the other hand, most of them take shots at trained clinicians for some reason. It is ironic that their techniques are well known in the very field they are critiquing (not that our field doesn't need critiquing at times!). Some of them are creative versions of those techniques. I am quite sure their work has been helpful to a lot of people, just look at their testimonials. However, when it comes to children we think it is wise to follow the work of properly credentialed professionals. Is it wise to use a treatment by someone who doesn't have training or clinical experience on a child?

Do we want you to buy our program? Yes. That certainly influences our opinion about those programs. I (Dr. Russ) was a parent of an anxious child. I just wanted help! I know you want help. Those programs might really help but please read them carefully. Nothing and I mean nothing always works. This program won't work in some situations. Please beware of outlandish promises. When it comes to anxiety, in my clinical experience, the last thing someone needs is for something else to promise a miracle that doesn't turn out to be one.

Parent or Therapist?

As parents, it is our job to help our kids. Any responsible parent of an anxious child wants to do what can be done to free their child from this surprising and stubborn problem. Of course you feel a deep longing to heal your own child. Maybe you are the unique parent who can be objective and always compassionate and as well as have a deep understanding of the psychology and physiology of anxiety and so be the "therapist" for you child. However, for most of us we begin to get frustrated and anxious ourselves as we see how resistant anxiety is to change. Do you really have the time and natural gifts to master the treatment of anxiety? Even if you do (that was my professional training) will your child respond to you like you hope? If they don't, can you remain calm and objective? A surgeon cannot operate on a family member. Can a parent really provide treatment for a complex psychological disorder on their own child?