… a lot is a problem

Anxiety is all about perceived danger, not actual danger. Hard to distinguish based on feelings alone. Some of us suffer anxiety and it can be debilitating. It can stop us take necessary risks in every day life. It can interfere with our futures, our relationships, our work and block the arrival of our dreams.

Psychologists work with “the way people learn”. We assume many psychological sources of distress are based on learning processes. Said another way – anxiety is the result of a learning process, so if we learned how to be anxious – we can learn how to “not be anxious”.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the “go to” interventions Psychologists reach for when we need to treat someone experiencing distress resulting from anxiety. And it goes a little like this.

CBT says either a thought we are thinking causes a feeling of anxiety or an action or something we are doing causes the feeling of anxiety. For best results, I look for the thoughts and actions that are causing the anxiety. Make sense? No … OK, well …

How about a TED Talk to help clear this up. Here is a funny one presented by Dr. Dawn Huebner believes we can all be taught to overcome fear and anxiety. She explains how anyone, at any age, can conquer debilitating fear. A clinical psychologist in private practice, she treats children with a variety of emotional, behavioral and developmental concerns.

Enjoy!