The examples I’ve given for dealing with anxiety might make anxiety management technique of thought challenging seem simple. Dealing with anxiety is not simple: if it were, you would be doing it all the time and would not need to read my articles on my blog.

Like all other skills it comes with practice, and practice should begin when you are not feeling anxious so that you can be as objective as possible. Remember that it is difficult to challenge worrying thoughts when you are distressed, so don’t be surprised if you have to start by keeping a thought diary and challenging your worries after your anxiety attack has subsided.

As you become more skilled at dealing with your anxiety, you will be able to work through the five ways of dealing with anxiety quickly and challenging your worrying thoughts will become more automatic. Eventually your anxiety management skills will allow you to be able to challenge your thoughts in me anxiety provoking situation itself.

“I can’t hold on to my worrying thoughts”

Do write down your thoughts, because thought management is a powerful tool in dealing with anxiety, and much more effective if you clearly spell out your worries. Anxious thoughts often come in the form of questions: “What is going to happen, will I pass out?’ or ‘Are they thinking that I look foolish?’ It is difficult to argue with a question, so turn it into a statement: ‘I am worried that I will pass out,’ or ‘I am worried that they think that I look foolish.’

It is very likely that the same thought or the same types of thought will crop up again and again. The more often a worry occurs, the more opportunity you have to devise a way of challenging it.

‘I can’t hold on to the challenging statement’

Do write down your challenging statements in full, as they will have more impact if you spell them out and you will better develop the skill of thought challenging if you get into the habit of examining your worries thoroughly.

‘It’s taking too long to take effect’

Eventually, if you keep practicing these techniques for dealing with your anxiety, the rational response to worrying thought can become as automatic as the anxiety response is now. However, you should expect to have ‘good’ days and ‘bad’ days: we all do. There are going to be times when you are not feeling well, or feeling tired or just too distressed to put challenging into action in the stressful situation. Do not worry about this too! Try to use distraction as a way of coping with the anxiety and, when you are feeling calmer, think about the rational response to your worries and also try to understand why challenging was difficult for you on this occasion.

In summary, in dealing with anxiety:

• Everyone has worrying thoughts and they only become a problem when they are not easily dismissed.
• Worrying can develop into a cycle of increasing anxiety if irrational beliefs are not challenged.
• With practice, you can challenge your worries and be successful in dealing with your anxiety attacks. You can do this by asking yourself how real your fear is and then generating a rational statement in response to it.