![]() ![]() Make a plan to gradually do the things you normally avoid. If avoiding situations and using safety behaviours helps to maintain our anxiety over the long-term, then it makes sense that learning to confront it might be uncomfortable in the short-term, but will help us take control and helps us feel better over time. What or when are the times when you are more likely to get anxious? If you can see the patterns, then maybe you can do something about those situations, and do something different. Print a blank Cogs PDF and fill in the factors that keep your anxiety going. Too much anxiety, or constantly being anxious, is unhealthy and detrimental to our lives and relationships.īy looking at the "cogs" that keep the central problem going, we can target and make positive changes in each of the cogs, which will at least, slow down, and at best, stop, the central problem, for example: For example, just prior to an exam, a few exam nerves have a positive effect - motivating us, helping us focus our thoughts on the job in hand, making us more alert. A certain amount of anxiety helps us to be more alert and focused. So the belief that it will happen remains, along with the anxiety. If you're frightened that your anxiety will make you pass out or vomit in the supermarket aisle, you won't find out that won't actually happen, because you don't go. Whilst avoiding people or situations might help you feel better at that time, it doesn't make your anxiety any better over a longer period. Whilst you depend on them to help you cope, you don't get to find out that without them, the anxiety would reduce and go away on it's own. Safety behaviours can also help to keep your anxiety going. Safety Behaviours: Go to the feared situation, but use coping behaviours to get you through, such as: holding a drink, smoking more, fiddling with clothes or handbag, avoiding eye contact with others, having an escape plan, taking medication. ![]() ![]() shopping at smaller shops, at less busy times Going to certain places at certain times, e.g. We will therefore notice lots of physical sensations. The action urge associated with anxiety is to escape or avoid. This helps energise us to fight or run away ('fight or flight response'). When there is real, or we believe there is a real, threat or danger, our bodies' automatic survival mechanism kicks in very quickly. Physical Sensations - The Adrenaline Response The worst possible scenario is going to happen People who get anxious tend to get into scanning mode - where they're constantly on the lookout for danger, hyper-alert to any of the signals, and make it more likely that the alarm system will be activated.Īnxiety Thoughts - I'm in danger right now We think we're in danger, so that's enough to trigger the system to go, go, go! It works so well, that it often kicks in when it's not needed - when the danger is in our heads rather than in reality. Primitive man wouldn't have survived for long without this life-saving response. It is the body's alarm and survival mechanism. This happens whether the danger is real, or whether we believe the danger is there when actually there is none. Adrenaline is rushed into our bloodstream to enable us to run away or fight. Learn effective skills online - The Decider Skills for Self Help online course.Īnxiety is the body's way of responding to being in danger. OCD Panic Disorder Health Anxiety PTSD Social Anxiety GAD & Worry Phobias Make sense of your anxiety, then learn how to make positive changes Self help guide for Anxiety, using effective CBT strategies. ![]()
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