5 Ways Of Dealing With Anxiety
Friday, February 27th, 2009Dealing With Anxiety – Finding Alternative Ways of Thinking
When you are familiar with the mental component of your anxiety and the particular thinking biases to which you are prone, you can begin to uncover many ways of dealing with anxiety and finding constructive alternatives to anxiety-promoting thinking. Rational thinking will make you feel less anxious and better able to cope with difficulties and deal with your anxiety.
To help in dealing with anxiety, there are five questions you should ask yourself in order to generate a more confident way of thinking:
Are there reasons for my having this worrying thought? This will help you to understand why you have the worry and make it less likely that you feel silly or embarrassed about it.
Are there reasons against my holding this thought? Now you are beginning to look for evidence to undermine and weaken your worry. You might use a friend or a partner to help you find statements to challenge your worry.
What is the worst thing that could happen? Be brave and consider the worst outcome of the situation which bothers you.
How could I cope with this? Now work out a plan for coping in the worst situation. If you can cope with the worst thing that could happen, you can feel confident in your skills for dealing with anxiety. Reflect on your own assets and skills and on your successful coping experiences in the past. Think about how you might change the problem situation or change how you feel about it. Also consider how others can help: what advice and support are available from family, friends or professionals? Again, you might find it helpful to get someone else’s views on this.
What is a more constructive way of viewing the situation? Look back over the notes you have made and try to form a new, rational statement in response to your initial worry. Challenging is a demanding technique for dealing with anxiety as it gets you to face your fears head on. When you first start to do this exercise you might find that it takes you some time and that you need to keep notes.
