Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks: How Cognitive Behavior Therapy Can Help You

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Article Title:

Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks: How Cognitive Behavior Therapy Can Help You

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Article Description:

In your journey to conquer anxiety and to eliminate panic

attacks from your day-to-day life, no one approach will be

totally right, but Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be a very

powerful part of your recovery. In this short article, I

want to explore what's involved in Cognitive Behavior

Therapy, so that you can make a decision whether or not

you'd like to explore it with your therapist.

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Distribution Date and Time: 2010-12-09 11:30:00

Written By: Dr Jeannette Kavanagh

Copyright: 2010

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Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks: How Cognitive Behavior Therapy Can Help You

Copyright © 2010 Dr Jeannette Kavanagh

Calming Words

http://www.calmingwords.com/

In your journey to conquer anxiety and to eliminate panic attacks

from your day-to-day life, no one approach will be totally right,

but Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be a very powerful part of

your recovery. In this short article, I want to explore what's

involved in Cognitive Behavior Therapy, so that you can make a

decision whether or not you'd like to explore it with your

therapist.

De-Constructing Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

When we de-construct the term, we look at each of the three words

separately to increase our understanding of the whole.

Cognitive

The first part of CBT is from the Latin cogito I think. Some of

you might recall those Philosophy lectures about Rene Descartes

and his famous 'cogito, ergo sum' - I think, therefore I am. In

general conversation, we link 'cognitive' with an intellectual

engagement. We hear about cognitive deficits caused by brain

damage, so let's say that the cognitive component of this

therapy involves our brains, our thoughts. It explores how you

think and react to things, and how those thoughts elicit an

anxiety response or start your panic attacks. If you want to

eliminate panic attacks, you have to recognize your role in

creating and maintaining them via what I call unhelpful thinking,

unhelpful habits of mind.

Behavioral Or Even Behavioural

In this treatment model, the behavior component isn't just about

how you behave in the sense of what you do. It's also about how

you react before you do things, and it's also about how many of

those behaviours become a habit and almost automatic. The

behavioural component is also about the range of responses your

therapists make available to you. Your therapist will work with

you to find alternative ways to react, to break down your

automatic responses. Through CBT, when you see that lift

(elevator) door opening, you'll be able to react in a calm way

instead of automatically panicking about using the elevator.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is an extremely interactive approach.

Therapy

The third part of CBT, therapy, is from the Greek therapeía

healing. The healing or therapeutic component is about what you

and your therapist do. It might involve you learning relaxation

exercises, but it's also part of an ongoing conversation and

series of observations about your thoughts, reactions and

actions. My counselling Practice and my e-kit Calming Words

involves helping people to learn to meditate and I encourage

daily meditation as part of building up our reservoir of calm

which is depleted daily by our hectic lives.

Eliminating Panic Attacks using Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Each anxiety or panic attack follows a well-documented cycle. R

Reid in his book Facing Panic calls it the Panic Cycle.

First step is where you have contact with stimuli which makes you

feel anything from slightly nervous to downright terrified. For

instance, if you have had panic attacks in the shopping Mall,

you'll feel terrified just entering those automatic doors.

In a Cognitive Behavior Therapy approach your therapist would

have you look closely at that initial trigger. You may be asked

to do something that seems paradoxical: you may be asked to

increase the number of times you experience that initial fear.

That's called an exposure-based intervention, and it can happen

in your therapist's office or in the Mall. It's a way of

allowing you to see what you already know at a rational level.

Namely, that there is nothing to fear. Cognitive Behavior Therapy

allows you to think (cognitive) about your fear response

(behavior) so that you can construct a more appropriate response

(heal).

At the end of most panic attacks the anxiety reducing behaviour

of choice is avoidance. You stay home, or you only go to the Mall

with a friend who knows about your problem, or you only go to the

movies if you can sit on the aisle seat - ready for a quick

escape.

You're in charge. However, at both ends of the panic attacks

cycle your reactions (cognitive responses) and behaviour (panic

or escaping) are the cause of your continuing discomfort. Both

sets of behaviour are inappropriate. Both can be discussed as a

way of re-writing the script. What script? The one that says

'enter Mall, feel terrified'. It's your thoughts that evoke

your adrenaline (fear) response. Through Cognitive Behaviour

Therapy, we can help you work with those thoughts and responses

to re-align them so that you change your response to entering the

automatic doors at the Mall - or whatever triggers your fear.

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Dr Jeannette Kavanagh has a counseling and coaching Practice in

Melbourne Australia, to help people find their unique solutions

to anxiety and panic attacks. For over two decades, Jeannette has

helped thousands of people overcome anxiety and panic attacks.

Visit her website http://www.calmingwords.com/ to sign up here

for a FREE MP3 (http://www.calmingwords.com/relax_on_cue.html)

" Relax on Cue " .