Microsoft Word closes everytime I minimize

Hello!
Here’s my problem:
Whenever I’m in Microsoft Word, if I minimize my window, when I click on the taskbar to reopen it, it "˜crashes’. Then, when I reload it, the document recovery screen is there and whatever I was working on is listed. At first, [after losing countless papers. doh!] I just made sure I auto-saved every 3 minutes, but now, I’m getting annoyed with this, because I always minimize my windows out of habit, so it's always crashing. So, does anyone know why Word is doing this and how I can fix it?

Here is some additional information:
I have Microsoft Word 2002; I have Windows XP Professional v.5.01 (Build 2600)…. If there’s anything else you need, just let me know