Anxiety

Modern society has been called 'age of anxiety', and for the last three decades with almost a third of the population reporting anxiety symptoms at some point in their lives. As people are forced to juggle work, home, and family pressures, their ability to respond to these constant demands and recuperate from each task has diminished.

The expression 'time poor' is indicative of a problem people have in managing these internal and external stressors. In the work-force today the average man / woman is said to be working five times as much as the average worker did in the 1970's. In Britain today we work 46 hours per week, the longest hours in the EEC.

What is Anxiety

Anxiety can be defined as the differential between your physical, thinking and feeling resources and the required response - ability to the task required. The need to adapt to the culture of change - management make people feel they are under constant threat, and that they may lose control and be unable to cope with their life demands.

These symptoms range from fear and dread (click for Anxiety / Panic check lists) across a continuum to irritability and insomnia to full blown panic attacks. These persistant symptoms prevent people from achieving their optimum work / life balance.

Causes

In the amygdala or 'old brain' we were designed with a fight-flight mechanism when the proverbial lion threatened to knock at the door. We are hard-wired to respond with increased physiological arousal to mobilise our defences to cope with the perceived threat. There are numerous causes which precede the onset of anxiety : occupational, relationship, physical illness, bereavement . which can trigger a period of intense stress. All of these have in common the belief that the coping responses are not adequate to meet the fear that the worst case scenario is going to occur.

CBT Treatment for Anxiety

The first session for a CBT practitioner is to give a full individual assessment using diagnostic criteria, to determine the severity of symptoms commensurate with anxiety. This will determine the origin of the persons life experience which may be causing anxiety, psychological type and the length of duration of presenting problems.

A problem list of 5-6 things the client wants to change as a result of CBT treatment is collaboratively drawn up with the therapist. This acts as the aims and objectives of the therapy. Clients are clear on:-

• what their diagnosis is.
• what means the therapist will use to achieve these results.
• how to recognise when these goals have been achieved.

Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire
(Pdf)

How CBT works

CBT treatment for anxiety works by both improving those resources which help the client to cope, and, at the same time diminishing the sense of threat. Behavioural and thinking techniques are implemented in the following order:

1. A complete range of relaxation training including breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, imagery and distraction techniques.
2. Educational training in the relationship between negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviour the challenge and reinterpret thinking in a more balanced way.
3. Behavioural experiments to test feared situations, and by experiencing these fears of the worst happening reduce their sense of danger and threat.