Cognitive Behavioral Solutions
for Anxiety & Related Disorders
What are Anxiety & Related Disorders?
Anxiety and related disorders include obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, and depression, among others. Common to all of these is an unhealthy habit of expecting catastrophe, failure, or other undesirable outcome. This leads to high levels of uncomfortable emotions such as anxiety or hopelessness.
Such emotions are experienced as so uncomfortable that sustained—and often desperate—efforts are made to avoid them, along with the thoughts, situations, or circumstances that trigger them (e.g., bridges, social gatherings, intrusive thoughts).
Avoiding uncomfortable emotions provides short-term relief but ultimately makes life increasingly more restrictive and less enjoyable. Moreover, avoiding uncomfortable emotions tends to strengthen the belief that they are intolerable, which has the paradoxical effect of increasing, not decreasing, discomfort. This cycle turns into disorder when it causes significant distress and interferes with daily life.
What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the gold standard treatment for anxiety and related disorders, with as many as 80% of individuals reporting clinically significant improvement following treatment.
CBT is based on the theory that thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and behaviors have a dynamic inter-relationship; each affects the other.
Exploiting this theory, trained therapists use a variety of strategies to intervene on thoughts and behaviors, derailing the cycle of disorder. In general, the most successful strategies involve not just cessation of avoidance, but whole-hearted re-engagement in activities that would typically trigger uncomfortable emotions.
The purpose of CBT is to generate evidence that uncomfortable emotions are tolerable, and that life can go on even while experiencing them. The purpose is also to generate evidence that the worst-case scenario is either not a foregone conclusion or is not as catastrophic as initially feared.
Where Can I Learn More?
