Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Best Option for Anxiety Patients?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Best Option for Anxiety Patients?

Anxiety is a psychological problem, which is experienced by a good percentage of the human population across the world. Some people are able to cope with their anxiety whereas in others the disorder derails every aspect of their daily lives. Fortunately, anxiety can be treated or at least managed. There are many ways of addressing anxiety disorder. One of the most effective is the cognitive behavioral therapy. An approach digs deeper into the patient’s behavior, their cognitive abilities and their emotions. As the patient, you can be treated alone or in a group of other patients. Let’s look at cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorder in detail.

How anxiety disorders are treated with therapy?

Research has ascertained that therapy is the most effective way of treating and managing anxiety disorders. Why is this? Unlike other approaches, therapy treats more than the symptoms but it also finds out the root causes. It can help you understand the cause of your worries. Through therapy, you also learn to be calm and view situations at a different angle. It also trains you on new problem solving skills and coping strategies. It enables you to do away with anxiety and helps the patient learn the way to use the strategies.

It is important to understand that anxiety disorders differ from a patient to another. Hence, the therapy you seek should match your symptoms and specific concerns. The length of the therapy will depend on the magnitude of the anxiety disorder. However, mostly the therapy takes a short time. Based on the American Psychological Association, people start showing signs of improvement after 8 to 10 therapy meetings.

There are various types of therapy used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. However, the best of them all is the cognitive behavioral therapy. Exposure therapy is also used. The therapist may use either of the approaches on you or a combination of them.

What is cognitive behavioral therapy all about?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is comprehensive. It addresses all the angles of the patient’s life. This way, you will find and treat the root cause of the disorder. Mostly, cognitive behavioral therapist will focus on three core areas including:
 

3 Proven Steps to Anxiety Free Life

 

Cognitive

This aspect of the therapy strives to assist the patient to change their way of thinking. It helps to transform thought patterns. If you are always thinking of bad things to happen to you, it will be hard for you to live a normal life. It is possible to train your mind to think more positively than you used to do in the past. Some experts have argued that the human mind was created to think negatively. Even at that, we are not limited to remain as such. This is especially where the thoughts are ruining our normal lives.

You can decide to think more positively and rationally, with the help of a cognitive behavioral therapist for anxiety disorders. There are no standard strategies of managing anxiety. What works for one patient may not produce results with another. Your therapist will help you in finding the methods that suit you. Cognitive behavioral therapy anxiety commences here. Nonetheless, there are some techniques, which have been proven to bear results.

They include taking a slow walk or simply relaxing from your active lifestyle. This enables you to settle your mind. Secondly, you can cease your negative thinking. You can also understand how to deal with good times as well as the bad moments. Besides, you can come up with positive and rational thoughts. You can make them a part of your personal statements. In addition, you can decide to move forward always notwithstanding the situations. Do not listen to the past negative voices in your head.

There is also need for the patient to nurture a culture of determination. They should be focused on overcoming their anxiety disorder. You should believe that by going through cognitive behavioral therapy, you would come out victorious. The patient also needs to pay more attention to their new way of thinking and shun negative thoughts at all costs. Finally, it is critical for the patient to understand that patient is integral in this process.

Behavioral aspect

This part of the cognitive behavioral therapy looks at all what you do as the anxiety patient. How does anxiety affect your daily life? This aspect is addressed after the therapist has been able to work on the patient’s cognitive element. This is because behavior is guided by thoughts. Hence, it is only after managing our negative thinking we are in a position to behave in a different manner. The behavioral therapy is important for patients who are anxious when in social places.

In this stage, the therapy helps you to identify when the anxiety strikes. You also learn to recognize what your body feels when you are anxious. It also enables you to know the coping strategies and the techniques best for relaxing your mind. The other thing you should do is to address your fears and anxious emotions in real life situations.

Emotional

This is the last component of the cognitive behavioral therapy anxiety. In this stage, the therapist assists you to develop strategies for remaining calm in different situations. When your mind is relaxed, you will be in a better position to absorb all that the therapist provides to you. Besides, with a calm mind, it is difficult for anxiety to engulf you. The focus here then is not on anxiety as a disorder but into ensuring your inner peace. With this, you become capable of managing any situation.
 

3 Proven Steps to Anxiety Free Life

 

Conclusion

Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders has been proven to work for most people. The therapy manages both the cognitive and behavioral aspects of the patient. It first helps the patient to change the way they think. They stop embracing their past negative thoughts, which makes them anxious. On the contrary, they develop new way of thinking. It then addresses the behavior of the person. All these aspects, helps you as the anxiety patient not to only overcome the disorder but also to prevent future attacks.

 

 

 

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.