Doctors usually treat Anxiety Disorder with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety is a type of therapy. It was first used in the 1980s and 1990s to treat anxiety disorders. Analysis has shown that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety is a type of treatment that helps overcome clinical anxiety disorders reliably.
CBT for anxiety is not a single method. But rather, it is a mixture of techniques that depend on the disorder treatment. For example, CBT for anxiety in treating depression would be different from CBT for treating other anxiety disorders.
There are so many different methods. So, the therapist must have experience with CBT to treat anxiety disorder. And he should know which particular treatments are most appropriate for the disorder.
What Is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of behavioral therapy that effectively treats various problems. These include:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Alcohol and substance use problems
- Marital problems
- Eating disorders
- Serious mental illness
Numerous research findings show that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety leads to significant improvements in functioning and quality of life. CBT is as effective or more effective in many studies than other types of mental therapy.
Researchers made CBT advancements based on both science and clinical experience. CBT is an approach for ample research evidence that the methods that have been developed produce improvement. In this way, CBT differs from many other types of psychological therapy.
Cbt Is Based On A Variety Of Key Principles, Including:
- Psychological disorders are, in part, focused on faulty or unhelpful thinking.
- Psychological disorders are partly focused on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
- People suffering from psychiatric disorders can find new ways to cope with them. Thereby they can alleviate their symptoms and make their lives more effective.
Goals Of CBT for Anxiety Disorder
One of the main goals of CBT is to identify irrational attitudes and patterns of thought. Then it replaces them with more practical views.
So As Part Of The Therapy Process, You Will Work On Several Topics, Including:
- Misperceptions that you might have about your skills and self-esteem
- Guilt, embarrassment, or frustration at past situations
- How to make something more assertive
- Coping with perfectionism and becoming more realistic
- Dealing with Anxiety-related Disorder procrastination
Your CBT counseling sessions can feel like a student-teacher relationship. Your Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety sessions can feel like a student-teacher relationship. The therapist will take on an instructor’s role, outline ideas, and guide you along the path of self-discovery and improvement. You will also be given homework tasks that are key to progress.
Keys for Success
There are some keys to improvement when it comes to CBT for anxiety disorder.
The Likelihood That Cbt Can Help You Depends Primarily On:
- Your expectations of success
- And your willingness to complete homework tasks.
- Also, your capacity to deal with uncomfortable thinking
People who can work hard and believe that CBT will help them are more likely to improve. This therapy method is intensive and involves active participation by the person. The improvement seen tends to be long-lasting and well worth the effort invested.
Cognitive Methods
CBT involves several techniques, most of which concentrate on problematic thinking.
Cognitive methods help reduce anxiety in interpersonal relationships and communities. And they give patients a sense of control over their anxiety in social situations.
Cognitive therapy’s goal is to change your core values that affect how you interpret your environment. Changing your core beliefs will lead to a long-lasting change in your anxiety symptoms.
One of the central topics discussed by CBT is the existence of automatic negative thoughts. People with Anxiety Disorder have developed automatic negative ways of thought. These are misaligned with reality, raise fear, and reduce their ability to cope. These thoughts immediately arise when you think of an anxiety-provoking situation.
E.g., suppose you’re scared of speaking in public. So, then just thinking about the situation will cause your thoughts of embarrassment and fear. Hence, the goal of CBT is to replace these cognitive distortions with more realistic perceptions.
As a person suffering from Anxiety Disorder, someone might have told you to “think positive.” Unfortunately, the problem isn’t that easy to solve. If it were, you would have solved your anxiety a long time ago.
The brain gets hard-wired over a long time to think negatively and has anxious thoughts.
So, It Needs To Be Gradually Taught To Think In A New Way.
Just saying “I’m going to be less anxious next time” doesn’t work because of your current thinking.
In the long run, changing automatic negative thinking requires practice and repetition. This can take many months. At first, you could only catch automatic negative thinking and make them rationally neutral. When this gets easier, you’re going to work your way to more realistic thinking. And then would it become automatic and normal.
Over time, your memory processes will be affected. And there will be a change in your brain’s neural pathways. You will begin to think, behave, and feel differently. But you will require persistence, practice, and patience to make improvements. At first, this is a conscious process. But it becomes automatic when you practice and repeat it.
Behavioral Methods
One of the most common behavioral therapy for Anxiety treatment is known as systematic desensitization. This type of exposure training includes gradually exposing you to anxiety-provoking situations. This will cause less anxiety over time.
Anxiety Disorder exposure training has to be a very slow process. People may have told you to “toughen up and face your fears.” Sadly, this is a really bad piece of advice. People with Anxiety Disorder are already facing what they fear regularly.
The exposure that is not structured in a gradual step-by-step phase does more harm than good. So it’ll make your anxiety worse, keep you stuck in a vicious cycle. As a result, ultimately, it will lead you to doubt and depression.
With your therapist, you will eventually expose yourself to fearful situations. So you can first practice imaginary exposure. For e.g., imagining a speech or a work interview by role-playing. Once the situation you imagined became simpler, you can switch to real-life situations. Hence, if exposure preparation moves too fast or conditions are too challenging too fast, it will backfire.
Internet CBT for Anxiety Disorder
Cognitive-behavioral therapy delivered over the Internet (i-CBT) is becoming more popular. It has scientific data to support its use, especially if a mental health provider assists it.
Because CBT follows a structured format, it is especially suited to online applications. This type of CBT can also benefit those with extreme Anxiety Disorder who are not yet at the point of being able to leave home to attend in-person therapy appointments.
The Bottom Line
Are you dealing with an Anxiety Disorder that impairs your day-to-day life? It is important to seek your doctor or mental health provider’s assistance. CBT can help you overcome symptoms if you’ve been diagnosed with anxiety disorder.
