Why Generalized Anxiety Disorder Makes it Hard to Relax
In cognitive behavioral therapy, we place a lot of focus on understanding the cycle of thoughts and behaviors that keep you stuck. With worry, there’s a number of different beliefs and reactions that help to maintain the cycle of anxiety. Here’s a few…
The initial worry is often either over-estimating the likelihood of something bad happening OR under-estimating your ability to cope if it did happen
The physical symptoms of anxiety often increase the more you focus on the worry. The more tense we feel, the more signals our body is sending us that something bad is about to happen, thus feeding back into the worry loop.
You may have positive beliefs about the benefits of worrying such as believing it’s responsible or helpful to always worry
You may pay a great deal of attention to worrying thoughts, taking your focus away from other things
You might use unhelpful strategies to get away from your worrying such as distracting yourself, pushing the thoughts away, or looking for excessive reassurance from others
Perhaps you’ve even started to worry about your worrying, that it’s gotten out of control and you can’t seem to get a handle on it
With CBT, we can help you learn specific strategies to challenge these patterns and help you to unhook yourself from the cycle of worry. We commonly work with clients on skills such as learning to unhook from a spiral of worrying thoughts, relaxation exercises, emotional processing, and problem solving.
We can help.
If you or someone you love is struggling with anxiety, please reach out. We offer anxiety treatment with CBT Therapists in Orlando and online throughout the state of Florida. Call today or send us your info and we’ll reach out for a free consultation to see if one of our therapists would be a good fit.
