“I Can’t Break This Anxious Cycle”

A massive part of my job as a therapist is treating, normalizing, and discussing anxiety and how it manifests in each individual client’s life. My personal working definition of anxiety is “the fear of something that has already happened, could happen, or is already happening that is outside of one’s control.”

Anxious thoughts often place us in the future or the past leaving us absent from the present life around us. They are disruptive and disconnect us from the world around us, keeping us paralyzed in our own internal world. 

The most evidence based practice to treat anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This is one of the many theories that I pull from to help clients manage the stress they feel. It goes a little something like this…

First, we create some space from the anxiety. Instead of being fully immersed in it, we begin to observe it. We ask: What might be triggering this sense of uneasiness?

Then we begin to explore and understand the space around the anxiety to grow the context around what could be contributing to this stress-related dysfunction. 

Next, we identify automatic thoughts—the ones that seem to pop up without effort—as well as any physical sensations in the body. For some people, anxiety is more cognitive (racing thoughts, overthinking), while for others it shows up more physically (tight chest, restlessness, fatigue). Sometimes it’s both. Understanding how anxiety presents for you helps guide the direction of treatment.

Isn’t therapy cool? You get individualized treatment based on your needs!

Lastly, we want to see what behaviors follow the anxious thoughts or somatic symptoms that could be perpetuating the anxiety cycle. These behaviors could look like avoidance (trying to ignore or escape the feeling), ruminating (getting stuck in repetitive thinking), OR it can depend on the circumstance. Overall, we want to know behaviorally where we are keeping anxiety alive.  

Once you can identify these patterns, it is easier to gain distance from the thoughts and behaviors that are keeping you paralyzed by fear. Often that can be relieving enough to begin filling in that space with more awareness, tools, context, and further exploration of the client’s needs in therapy. 

This is something I could delve into much more detail about, so if anyone is interested, feel free to reach out and let me know!