How To Make Anxiety Work For You

One of the more successful treatments for anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders is a method of therapy called "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" (CBT) and many anxiety disorder patients have had great success in overcoming and coping with anxiety symptoms through this method. Some aspects of CBT that are important parts of the therapy are:

1. Change the way the patient thinks about anxiety in general and about the symptoms it causes. The patient will learn through this aspect of CBT that anxiety itself is a "natural emotion" and the unpleasantness of the symptoms in people in whom anxiety has become a "disorder" comes from the fact that this normal emotion can occur out of context or at inappropriate times (disordered). When a patient learns that the emotion he is experiencing is not "strange or foreign," this alone can help toward reducing the fear of the symptoms anxiety causes. Once a patient with anxiety accepts the fact that anxiety is natural and is supposed to happen at the appropriate times, he can:
2. Look at those things that have become "triggers" in causing anxiety to occur out of context or in a disordered fashion. One way to express this fact to an anxiety sufferer is to say, "Anxiety is a completely natural and normal emotion and it is only the timing of it that has become out of the order it was intended to happen." Under normal circumstances, the anxiety emotion was created to be triggered in order to allow the one it is occurring in to have the sudden added strength and presence of mind, to flee from danger or to fight an enemy that has attacked him. This is the origin of the term "triggered anxiety" (that is referred to as the "fight or flight" response).
3. Recognize that anxiety also gives added abilities, determination and ambition to the one who experiences it, in order for him to perform a task at hand. This can be any task that requires what some might also call "intestinal fortitude," that internal strength we all have and must call upon at times it is needed. Many people find that they have important tasks to perform in their everyday lives. A firemen must be on alert to put out fires that are called in to them, teachers must have the inspiration to interest their pupils in learning the subjects being studied, and an athlete in a track meet must be ready to run in an attempt to win a race. Without the anxiety emotion, they would not have the added strength and inspiration to accomplish these tasks as successfully.

   A person who is called upon to make a public speech needs that extra inspiration to bring forth his spoken points more powerfully and with conviction; anxiety is what adds to this experience and helps to accomplish this. The butterflies in the stomach and sweaty hands can actually be a sign that you are about to make a powerful presentation and not that you are about to run off of the stage due to stage-fright; it is all in how you look at it. You can make it work for you or work against you. Will you look at it as positive energy to help inspire you or as fear that is holding you back? Herein lies the secret to this aspect of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; the way in which you perceive the anxiety you are experiencing!
4. Remember that there is no right or wrong in how one experiences anxiety; everyone is different. When a group of people rides on a roller coaster at the amusement park, some will experience anxiety as an extreme fear-emotion while others on the same ride will experience it as welcome excitement. These types of people, who enjoy this adrenaline rush, do also experience some fear with their excitement, but they actually enjoy it! They like being scared occasionally and are the types that also like to take in a suspense thriller movie or horror film to get that same type of thrill. They are exhilarated by these experiences and one term used to describe them is "adrenaline junkies." If anxiety sufferers can learn to view anxiety in a different light and recognize it as a natural emotion, then they can use to their advantage.
5. Get anxiety to work more for the patient and less against him. Is this more easily said than done for people whose anxiety has developed into a disorder? Of course it is, but anything worthwhile takes time and effort to accomplish. An anxiety disorder sufferer who works on this will see small gains that will encourage him to continue in changing his perceptions about anxiety and over time, will begin to see a cumulative improvement in many areas of his life that have been affected by negative anxiety experiences.

A search on the Internet using "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" as the search term will yield lots of quality CBT programs that are available. Most are very affordable and well worth the cost.