How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Treat Your Anxiety
Thanks to the introduction of social media, most of us now appreciate how widespread anxiety disorders are. Everyone talks about them, complains about them, and makes memes about them. But what are we doing about this? Just because anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue on the planet doesn’t mean they’re inevitable or permanent.
We have many effective modalities for treating anxiety. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a popular form of talk therapy. It helps people cope with stressful situations and distorted thought patterns. In other words, CBT is an ideal option for addressing the ever-increasing presence of anxiety disorders.
What is an Anxiety Disorder?
For starters, keep in mind that anxiety is a normal and often very helpful emotion. It’s designed to keep us safe by alerting us to the presence of danger. If a threat is suspected, at least one of our stress responses is activated, e.g., fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. This state can remain activated until the risk is gone. But what happens if we get stuck in a hyper-vigilant mindset? What if we have trouble differentiating between real and imagined dangers?
Such malfunctions can result in conditions like generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and more. We are in perpetual high alert, and this causes stress hormones to remain present in our bloodstreams — increasing the odds of other physical or mental problems to emerge.
While every disorder and every person is unique, there are some familiar general signs to watch for. These include:
Chronic worrying — often related to irrational fears
Avoidance, withdrawal, and self-isolation
Sleep disturbances
An inability to concentrate or make decisions
Restlessness
Agitation
Fatigue
Digestive problems
Sweating, trembling, and rapid heart rate
Unexplained physical red flags like painful and tight muscles
Panic attacks
Related outcomes like guilt, shame, doubt, and fear
Low self-esteem
Anxiety disorders are best addressed by consulting a mental health professional.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Can Treat Your Anxiety
A therapist who specializes in CBT is uniquely positioned to help anyone whose primary concern is high anxiety. Put simply, CBT directly addresses flawed ways of thinking and their root causes. From there, new perspectives can be integrated into one’s daily life by:
Identifying Your Triggers
What causes you to fixate and ruminate? CBT guides you to take a good, long look at the patterns in your life. When you know your triggers, you can effectively take steps to preempt them.
Getting Comfortable With Uncertainty
A hallmark of any anxiety disorder is a need to know what’s going to happen. Building up tolerance for uncertainty is a powerful bulwark against overwhelming anxiety. With proper guidance, this is not as difficult as it may seem now.
Correcting Distorted Thought Patterns
This is a hallmark impact of CBT. Recognizing and accepting the root causes is a giant step toward replacing counterproductive thinking with positive and accurate perspectives. For example, perfectionism is an unhealthy choice. A CBT therapist helps you see and change such black-and-white thinking.
Embracing Mindfulness
When we stay in the present moment, dysfunctional anxiety is virtually powerless. CBT teaches us how to resist dwelling in the past or fearing the future via practices like meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, and more. These coping skills will carry over to improve other aspects of your life.
It’s Time to Put the Brakes on High Anxiety
Your quality of life can skyrocket. You can thrive again. Anxiety disorders are treatable, and CBT is an excellent choice. To learn more about anxiety therapy and this recovery process, I invite you to reach out. Let’s have a conversation about what’s going on and how to make the changes you seek.
