I have anxiety, now what do I do?
If you’ve taken our quiz you’ll have discovered how much anxiety is affecting your life. The question now is, what do you do about it?
One form of treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Therapists who use this approach essentially look at the link between thoughts and behaviors. They help clients change how they think in order to change how they behave. With anxiety, this can lead to an entire perspective shift, and can be life changing.
Below, we round up six of our therapists’ favorite CBT teachings to help you get started. If you’re interested in learning more, you may enjoy our upcoming two-week Retrain Your Brain to Reduce Anxiety course. Your humanest counselor will provide daily CBT-based techniques, worksheets, and exercises designed specifically to reduce anxiety for you to follow in your own time, along with a small group and with the counselor’s guidance.
6 Techniques from CBT our Therapists Love
1. Thoughts Are Not Facts
We often assume our thoughts are simple observations about what is true. “I’m pathetic” or “Nobody cares about me” can feel as real as “The sky is blue”. Be on the lookout today for interpretations you’re making about yourself, others, or the world. Realize that these thoughts are stories your mind has created that may or may not be true.
2. What Was I Thinking?
Whenever you experience a surge of strong emotion today, stop and ask yourself, “What thought just went through my mind?” Thoughts like “I’ll never succeed” can lead to sadness, whereas thoughts like, “They really like me” might lead to joy. Write down three examples of what you find as you practice recognizing the thought-feeling connection.
3. Should You Worry?
It’s hard to let go of chronic worries, in part because our minds often tell us we need to worry about something and that worrying is in some way useful—even if we can’t control the outcome. Notice if this belief is driving your worry today, and give yourself permission to let go of unproductive trains of thought.
4. Emotional Reasoning
Just as thoughts can drive feelings, feelings can influence thoughts. Notice today if your expectations are based on how you feel (e.g. “I feel X so it must be true”) For example, if you are feeling anxious, do you assume that means something bad is going to happen? Remind yourself that your feelings may have nothing to do with what will actually happen.
5. What Are The Odds?
When you’re worried about something bad happening today, think about how likely that outcome really is. How often has it happened before? Are there more likely outcomes? Most of the time, the things we worry about never end up happening, so the anxiety we experience causes us unnecessary suffering.
6. How Bad Would It Be?
Look for times today when you’re worrying about a possible catastrophe. Would it be as bad as you fear? Worse than bad? The worst day of your life? Insurmountable? Or would it be a problem you simply need to handle? Picture yourself using all your resources to cope with it if it were to occur.
Sign up now for Retrain Your Brain to Reduce Anxiety starting January 20. Free for humanest members. (Free membership promotion on now!)
