Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you develop actionable skills to manage your anxiety and negative thoughts.  

Anxiety is a familiar mental health disorder in the US and globally. However, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America mentions that only 37% of people receive treatment for this condition.  

Anxiety doesn’t have a quick fix, and while medications are essential and part of a good treatment plan, therapy also helps you work through anxiety.  

Cognitive therapy for anxiety helps you discover the root cause of your problem and the steps you can take to subdue it. One effective treatment for anxiety is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy).  

CBT for Anxiety Explained 

CBT is a variety of treatment that works on negative thought patterns or behaviors to recognize and restructure them. In other words, CBT helps you change how you approach situations.  

For example, if you are about to start a new job, you may be feeling several things: 

• Anxiety: As you approach a new environment with new coworkers and processes, you may experience anxiety. You may think, “ I am never going to progress, to catch on, and consider calling in sick on my first day.” 

• Neutral: If you’ve had other jobs in the past, you may be feeling neutral. You may think, “Work is just work after all. I can go out for dinner as soon as I’m through with the day.” You may get tough work to go grocery shopping and focus on the rest of your night.  

• Excited: You may feel excitement when starting a new adventure or confronting new challenges. You may think to yourself, “ I can’t wait to collaborate on that new project.” You may go to the office and start introducing yourself to the others.   

Starting a new job can prompt a range of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in different people. Your thoughts and feelings will rely on your personal attitude, beliefs, and assumptions about your circumstances.  

Unfortunately, if you have anxiety, the negative thought patterns and emotions overshadow the positive feelings. The feelings of fear and unworthiness can take over. CBT for anxiety works to change your thinking. By changing your thoughts, you can change your feelings about a situation. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety 

It is human nature to feel anxious, nervous, or fearful, as mentioned by Ciara Jenkins, a therapist and licensed clinical social worker at Life on Purpose, Counseling, & Coaching Services. 

Jenkins mentions everyone can experience anxiety at varying degrees from time to time. Several times. Intense fear, anxiety, or panic results from our thinking about certain situations and not necessarily the situation itself.  

Jenkins goes on to add that when you create a space between a situation and your thinking, feelings, and actions, it gives you the power to manage the situation. It doesn’t worsen the situation or hold you back from your goal.  

Perception significantly influences our experiences when we are able to relinquish unhealthy thoughts and attitudes. We open ourselves to healthier and more factual alternatives, contributing to a better experience and less severe, uncomfortable emotions, remarks Jenkins.  

A particular situation can encourage negative thoughts and feelings in your mind, which can start affecting your behavior towards it over time. For example, children. Having negative feelings about going to school can lead to making excuses not to attend.  

Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety allows individuals to identify the links in the chain leading to worsened anxiety and depression: the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physical sensations, intimately connected, states Steven Lucero, PhD, MBA, a clinical psychologist at Brightside.  

Lucero emphasizes that you can take specific actions to face the situations causing your anxiety.  

Examples.  

For instance, if you are dealing with low self-esteem, you may try to avoid social situations because you are not comfortable being around a lot of people, which triggers anxiety. In such situations, if you are invited to a group gathering at a restaurant, where a big turnout is expected, your immediate thought is: Will it make you feel like you’ll have to make small talk, and people might feel awkward around you?  

Your thoughts might make you panicked and even nervous. You might call the host at the last moment to inform them that you are not feeling well and will be unable to attend.  

While your behavior may make you feel better in the short term, it actually prolongs the anxiety you experience in social gatherings. When you frequently avoid situations that trigger anxiety and fear. You continue the negative cycle of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  

However, if you are obtaining CBT Therapy, you begin working on your anxiety in social gatherings.  

You start learning exercises that help you relax and use them whenever you receive an invitation to go out. The exposure therapy helps you write down your thoughts and your feelings when you begin having anxiety. You can work with your therapist to view your list. Best of all, you can replace negative feelings and thoughts with realistic ones.  

The structure described is called cognitive restructuring or reframing.  

As you become confident and see yourself increasingly effective at managing the situations that previously led to fear and anxiety, you will become more capable of continuing to function in opposition to the fear, explains Lucero.  

CBT Techniques for Anxiety 

CBT professionals utilize some common behavioral techniques to help you manage anxiety and bring about behavioral changes. Below are some of the methods they use to succeed in their goals: 

Cognitive Restructuring or Reframing 

This method involves examining your negative thought patterns more closely. It tries to understand whether you: 

Assume the worst will happen.  

Overgeneralize. 

Provide minor details with more importance.  

When thinking in this way, it can influence your actions, and in some cases, can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  

Your therapist will help you identify your negative patterns by asking you about your thought process and certain situations. After you become aware of those, you can learn how to reframe your thinking, to make them positive and productive.  

Thought Challenging 

Thought challenging is about considering things from different angles, by using actual evidence from your life.  Thought challenging helps you consider things. With an objective perspective, instead of assuming that your thoughts are facts or the truth.  

When you learn about cognitive distortions, it can help you identify when they are showing up in your thoughts. This allows them to function, correct unhelpful thinking, and change it to more balanced and factual thoughts.  

Anxiety challenges you to rationalize your problems, making you feel anxious, but you do not understand where those feelings are coming from. Alternatively, you may have a fear of something, such as social gatherings, without really understanding why.  

Behavioral Activation 

If anxiety inhibits you from performing an activity, you can schedule it by writing it in your calendar. It helps put a plan in place to keep you from worrying about it.           

For example, if you are anxious about your children getting sick at playgrounds, you might want to schedule a park date with a friend. Such behavioral techniques will encourage you to move forward and confront the situation, armed with the skills you develop in CBT.  

Journaling 

Journaling, also known as thought recording, enables you to connect with and become aware of your thoughts and feelings. It also helps clarify and organize your thoughts.  

You can make lists of your negative thoughts and the positive ones. Which you replace them with. You may receive encouragement during anxiety counseling to write down the new skills and behaviors you work on between therapy sessions.  

How CBT Helps with Social Anxiety. 

CBT utilizes various techniques to help with social anxiety. Below are some techniques they use to achieve success in this goal.  

Behavioral Experiments 

If you experience catastrophic thinking and assume the worst is about to occur, behavioral experiments come into play. They are similar to a scientific experiment when your therapist hypothesizes the potential outcomes of your actions and writes down what to anticipate, what will happen, what fears you have, and what could happen.  

You may discuss with your therapist what you predicted might happen or whether it actually did. Over time, you will realize that your worst-case scenario is unlikely to occur.  

Relaxation Techniques 

One of the primary CBT steps to manage panic disorder is relaxation. Relaxation techniques help reduce stress and permit you to think more clearly. In return, these techniques can help you regain control of a situation.  Some of these techniques might include: 

• Deep breathing exercises.  

• Progressive muscle relaxation.  

• Meditation.  

These practices do not require much time to perform, and the tools you can use, whenever you experience anxiety, such as waiting in line to buy groceries.  

How to Find CBT Professionals? 

Finding a good CBT professional can be challenging. However, instead of feeling overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, you can find a therapist near you without facing challenges.   

Below are some factors to consider when seeking a CBT professional.  

Online or In-Person: If you decide to see a therapist in person, it involves sitting with them in an office on chairs or couches.  Thankfully, there are more therapists. I am presently offering online CBT programs for anxiety, rather than earlier. Therefore, you may find you are more comfortable dealing with them from the comfort of your home.  

You have the option of considering individual therapy or trying CBT in a group setting. In such cases, a facilitator, usually a licensed mental health professional, works with a small group of people who face similar circumstances.   

If you are dealing with social anxiety, group therapy sessions might be particularly helpful for your situation.  

Determine your preferences. 

It helps if you try to figure out if there is a specific therapist with whom you are more comfortable. Your relationship with your therapist is essential for your mental health and recovery process. If you ask yourself the following questions: 

• What do you want in your therapist?  

• Do you feel more comfortable with a male or female therapist?  

• Do you want a younger or older therapist?  

• Would you like to incorporate a religious aspect into your therapy?  

Start Searching 

When searching for a CBT professional, it’s helpful to ask for recommendations from friends and family. You can also expand your search by looking for CBT professionals online.  

Do not settle.  

There are no CBT worksheets for anxiety, making it essential to feel comfortable with your therapist. If you think your therapist is not a good match, you can look for another. Similar to therapists using various CBT steps to manage panic disorder, you too can consider different therapists to meet your specific requirements.