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What Are the Benefits of CBT For Anxiety Treatment?

8/20/2019

8 Comments

 
Girl looking at the ocean
Are you tired of feeling like you can’t cope with your debilitating anxiety?

Do your racing thoughts, panic attacks, or phobias impact your daily functioning?

Anxiety disorders impact people all around the world. Anxiety doesn’t discriminate, and, if untreated, the problems can bleed into every area of your life. Therapy can help you dismantle and unpack your anxiety symptoms. However, not all types of treatment are the same!

Seeking Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety allows you to address your symptoms directly - and it provides you with viable solutions for change. Let’s get into what else you need to know.

Understanding CBT For Anxiety

Blocks Spelling CBT
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a well-known, evidence-based modality that can treat many mental illnesses. The theory assumes a close relationship between your thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors.

By challenging your thoughts and examining your coping skills, you can learn healthier ways to manage your anxiety.

CBT is direct and collaborative. It assumes that you (like many) struggle with the following cognitive distortions:
  • Catastrophizing (assuming something terrible will happen)
  • Emotional reasoning (assuming that because you “feel” a certain way, that makes it true)
  • Control fallacies (assuming you can control how others behave or assuming you are a victim to the circumstances around you)
  • Overgeneralization (assuming an overarching belief due to a single experience)
  • All-or-nothing thinking (assuming things are only good or bad, perfect or failures)
  • Personalization (assuming that someone’s behavior is directly because of you)

These distortions can wreak havoc on how you perceive yourself, others, and the world around you. That said, if you learn to challenge them, you can learn how to adopt a healthier framework for your thinking.

The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Process

​In treating and overcoming anxiety, therapists employ a variety of different techniques to approach and improve your symptoms. All of these techniques are designed to help you deepen insight into your thought and behavioral patterns. 

1. Cognitive Restructuring
Cognitive restructuring helps you identify how dysfunctional thought patterns (or automatic thoughts) impact your feelings and behaviors.

By reframing and even dismantling these thoughts, you can start to create different belief systems. Your therapist will help you learn how to examine evidence and challenge your faulty, core beliefs. 
​
2. Relaxation Training
Woman Practicing Relaxation
We carry stress and anxiety in our bodies. This tension drags on us, weighs on us, and can bring forth a magnitude of emotional and physical ailments. 

CBT for anxiety often focuses on building healthy relaxation skills such as:
  • Deep breathing
  • Progressive muscle relaxation
  • Grounding exercises
  • Guided visualization scripts

3. Pleasant Activity Scheduling
When you’re anxious, it’s hard to feel excited or present in daily activities. You may prolong taking care of yourself because you’re feeling so negatively.

However, there can be something inherently compelling about writing down your intentions. Pleasant activity scheduling encourages people to identify the positive activities they want to engage in each week.

You will write down these activities, and you will be prompted to follow through with doing them!

4. Social Skills Training
Anxiety can turn ordinary social situations into absolute nightmares. You may second-guess what you say; you may be hyper-attuned to how the other person responds. Likewise, you believe you can’t maintain a significant conversation with someone else.

Social skills training may include communication or assertiveness work. This training may entail direct education, modeling, and engaging in role-plays. Through these exercises, you will improve your confidence and capacity for engaging in healthy social interactions. 

5. Thought Records
thought records for CBT
​Many CBT practitioners use thought records to help clients create a roadmap for their unhelpful thoughts.

These worksheets have you identify your:
  • Triggering situation
  • The emotions you felt (and the intensity in which you felt them)
  • The unhelpful thoughts you experienced
  • The evidence that potentially supports those thoughts
  • The evidence that potentially negates those thoughts
  • A more balanced and realistic perspective 
  • The outcome (rating your emotion again)


​Getting The Treatment You Deserve

CBT for anxiety can provide you with profound relief for your distress. Furthermore, it’s effective, and most people start experiencing relief immediately.

You don’t need to let your anxiety dictate your life! With the right tools and strategies, you can overcome your most frustrating symptoms. Are you ready to get started on your journey?

Contact me today to learn more!
Contact Me
8 Comments
Fred Gibbons link
3/25/2021 11:26:58 am

It's interesting that you point out that cognitive-behavioral therapy can help relieve your anxiety. I've been feeling anxious for the past few years, so I'm thinking about trying CBT soon. I'm going to look for a good provider of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the area to use.

Reply
Jorie Miklos
3/25/2021 05:29:51 pm

Hi Fred! Yes, CBT has been well researched to be extremely effective and successful in treating anxiety. We specialize in CBT and treating anxiety at Autumn Leaf Counseling, and Monica is accepting new patients. If you are interested in working with her, feel free to call or send an email from the contact page. Thanks!

Reply
Charlotte Fleet link
5/3/2021 11:52:25 am

It was good to learn that CBT focuses on creating healthy relaxation skills to help those with anxiety. My younger sister struggles with a lot of anxiety and is rarely relaxed. I will have to suggest that my parents invest in CBT treatment for my sister to help her deal with her anxiety.

Reply
Chance Cook link
7/9/2021 10:35:17 am

My dad is one of those people who believes therapy is only for certain people. I don't know how I'll ever convince him that there are various treatments that are completely different. Hopefully, I can send this article to him and it'll help change his view a bit.

Reply
Ella Starr link
7/19/2021 01:05:43 pm

Thank you for talking about how many practitioners believe that CBT therapy can help with thoughts. My husband has been having a lot of anxiety for the last few months. I will find a reputable anxiety treatment service in our area.

Reply
Hailey Miller link
8/10/2021 09:54:51 pm

Thanks for pointing out that anxiety disorders impact people around the world and if left untreated, they can affect every area of our lives. This is really informative since I'm having anxiety and panic attacks every night due to being alone. I guess I should look for modality therapy on Monday so I can improve my quality of life during this tough time.

Reply
Kristofer Van Wagner link
8/25/2021 09:12:12 pm

I appreciate that this post shared that when looking for a therapist, it is important that we hire someone certified and trained. It makes sense for us to be mindful of who we hire as it can impact our healing process. Since my wife mentioned she needs a therapist for her postpartum depression, I will remember to look at their credentials.

Reply
Energy Experts Louisiana link
10/21/2022 06:53:25 pm

Lovely bblog you have here

Reply



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    As a therapist, Jorie Miklos enjoys helping people reach a level of personal happiness and satisfaction that they didn’t think was possible.

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  • Home
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