Thinking out of anxiety

Some people feel that anxiety is a problem that originates in the brain and there is no way to use the brain to counteract it since, after all, it is the brain which is the problem. Fortunately, people who suffer from anxiety know that there are ways to think your way out of it.

There are a couple of ways to do this. The most popular way to approach this sort of problem is with cognitive behavioral therapy which attempts to get the individual to think more rationally about the issues that causing them distress. In a nutshell, CBT works by getting you to minimize thinking errors which are cognitive mishits about how a certain situation or circumstance can negatively impact a person. By removing thinking errors you can go a long way towards eliminating your anxiety.

CBT has been shown to be effective in many cases. Some say more than 90% of people with anxiety can find relief from their symptoms by taking part in CBT. I still believe that there are some who will require a more intensive approach.

For instance people with certain conditions such as schizo-affective disorder do not seem to respond as well as CBT. Also, in my experience CBT is especially effective at dealing with social anxiety and panic attacks and phobias but less successful with dealing with generalized anxiety. For this reason, I believe that a person need not stay in therapy forever.

If you have a CBT therapist and have been using his interventions and techniques and are not improving, I believe is time to cut the cord and either see a new therapist or try a new approach. I may be in the minority, but I believe that your obligation is to yourself and your disorder. It is not your problem to figure out how your ineffective counselor is going to make the rent. If I had a million dollars for every person that I knew of that continued to see a therapist in the face no evidence that they were getting better, either because they liked the therapist or felt guilty about leaving them, I would be a trillionaire.

The simple fact is that you owe it to yourself to get better. You do not owe it your therapist to keep the lights on at his apartment. Chances are good that he is just doing fine, helping others.