6. Brain Training - CBT Strategies for Anxiety

CBT Strategies for Anxiety

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is often beneficial for anxiety. Try these expert tips when you feel anxious.

Focus on how your feelings will change when you start to feel better
Talk with a friend, or write down on a piece of paper, the way you feel now, and the way you'll feel once your anxiety recedes. Just visualizing how you feel when you are calm can help you to get there. For example: "I am very anxious about my math test. I feel nervous and shaky, and it's hard to think. This feeling will get better, though, and when it does, I expect to feel calm and relaxed, and be able to think much more clearly."

Look for the silver lining
When you feel anxious, you're probably worried about something negative, or afraid that something terrible might happen. But stop for a moment and ask yourself if this cloud has a silver lining. If you are worried that you don't have time to clean up often, for example, you could remind yourself that you have a job and financial security, or the opportunity to go to school. These things are good, even if they sometimes keep you from cleaning up as much as you'd like.

Ask yourself what you're worried about
If you're too anxious to go to a friend's house, ask yourself why that worries you. If you're afraid there will be too many people there, ask why that number of people is a problem. If the answer is that some of them don't like you, ask why it matters what other people think. Keep on asking yourself questions until you get to the underlying assumption behind your worry, then challenge that assumption. If you're afraid of having no friends, for example, remind yourself that going to your friend's house is helping you make friends, not the other way around. Feel free to use the tools from the article on "Confronting Negative Thoughts" to help you process the assumptions that might be guiding your beliefs.

Remember that you don't have to worry
"You don't have to worry" might seem like a strange thing to say, but it's important because our society sends out some pretty mixed messages, and sometimes, we talk about worrying like it's good, or even necessary. Conventional wisdom says that people who "care a lot" or are "extra conscientious" do better at their jobs and other areas of life. And often, when we say someone "cares," we really mean that they worry. But the problem is that it's not anxiety that helps people do a good job – it's the actions they take. When you see a problem, do something about it if you can. But if you can't, then let it go. There's no benefit to stressing about things beyond your control.

Find something else to think about
We humans have a pretty cool skill. We can consciously decide to put a thought down and pick up a different one. Imagine you're busily studying for a test, for example, and an ad for your favorite show pops up on your computer screen. For a minute, you might be distracted thinking about the next episode, but when you do get back to focusing on your work, you tell your brain to put the TV show thoughts on hold and think about the test instead. It might take a few tries, but eventually, you shift mental gears and can study again. Sometimes, worrying less can be as simple as deciding to put the worries down, for a while, and pick up a different train of thought.

Do something that engages your brain
For worries that are harder to shake off, give yourself a break from the anxiety by engaging your brain in something important to you. Play a sport that you enjoy, create art, if that's your passion, volunteer on an exciting project, or spend time with people you love. You can even just take a walk and focus on the nature around you or the sound of your breathing. You'll learn more about focusing on the present in the mindfulness article on page 15. For now, the important thing is to engage your brain completely and get a break from all those anxious thoughts.

Turn off your brain's emergency signals
Sometimes your brain gets stuck in full emergency mode, and no matter how illogical it might be, you just can't stop feeling stressed out and anxious. The good news is that you can send a signal back up through your nervous system and tell your brain that this is not an actual emergency. How? By doing things that you'd never do in a real emergency.

• Talk softly and calmly. Your brain knows that there's no time for pleasantries in a life-threatening moment, so the more you speak in a soft and calm voice, the more your mind starts to come back to normal function mode.
  Smile. People don't smile in four-alarm emergencies, so stretching those smile muscles is another signal that all is well.
• Chew gum. People don't have time to eat when they're running for their lives, and chewing gum produces saliva, which gets your body thinking about food and shows you're not in danger.
• Breathe Deeply. Panic leads to rapid, shallow breathing, and it can be easy to breathe that way when you're anxious, but if you force your breathing to be slower and deeper, your brain starts to slow the panic alarms
• Use open body posture. In danger, we curl up to protect our organs or tense up to run away, so if you can force yourself to sit or a stand in a relaxed, open posture, your brain might start to realize that it misread the situation.

Write down three good things you did
This technique works better and better over time. Each day, take a moment to write down three good things that happened to you. The best choices are actions that you took yourself, but any good thing qualifies. A nice phone call from a friend still counts, for example, while a conversation that you started yourself is even better. Things you initiated on your own are best because you can do them again whenever you'd like a boost of positivity in your day.