The Emotionary No.2 - Anxious

Anxious

[angk-shuhs] adjective

Anxious is like a magnet, attracting stray thoughts, like iron filings. Heavy-metal mutterings that rush in on you, crowding together, shuffling and whispering:

What if? What if? What if?

They mean no harm, these iron thoughts. Hiding from them will increase their magnetism. They must have their answers. Please give them their answers:

What if it’s lies? Then I will leave.

What if it’s true? Then I’ll believe.

What if she dies? Then I will grieve.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps people overcome their anxiety by breaking the vicious cycle that often exists around our thoughts, physical symptoms, emotions and our behaviours. CBT teaches the skills to help us identify and objectively challenge common thinking ‘traps’, such as catastrophising or predicting the future, before replacing them with a more balanced, realistic perspective. Alongside this, CBT helps us to modify any behavioural patterns which may be maintaining the anxiety, by introducing evidence-based interventions which break the habits or patterns that have developed. By systematically confronting our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, we can teach our brain that the situation is manageable, effectively ‘rewiring’ our response to it, reducing physical tension, and stripping anxiety of its power over our day to day life.