Anxiety Habits

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What do I mean by anxiety habits? Well I'll tell you but I first need to ask you something: Do you ever make the same mistakes on a regular basis?  For example, maybe you seem to bump your head in the same spot in the house? Perhaps you make the same kinds of typos when you are typing? The exact particulars will be unique to you but the point is that we all have habits.

It’s amazing how ingrained these tendencies can become in our behaviour.  They certainly apply to our mental habits too. When applied to anxiety and panic attacks, I call them anxiety habits.

For instance you may have the same recurring, anxious thoughts, on a regular basis which lead to the same recurring, anxious feelings.  Dr. John Grohol, Psy.D., in his article MIT explains why bad habits are hard to break.  Habits may form neural pathways which make it more difficult to break the pattern of behaviour.

However, do not despair... I want to explain how you can actually use this tendency to your advantage by developing new habits (versus anxiety habits) which comprise new ways of thinking about the world. 

What's quite exciting is that the same principle of repeating past negative behaviour can be converted to new, repetitive and positive thoughts.  Positive thoughts lead to behaviour which creates positive results in your life.

Once you learn to carry out new, positive thoughts by restructuring your old thoughts,  you’ll not only address your anxiety and panic attacks, but you’ll continuously benefit your overall well-being. The key is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).  If you have not already seen my introduction to CBT you can click here and it will open in a new window.

I don’t say this as a means to simply make you feel good but rather to point out that more and more scientific studies are demonstrating how effective changing thoughts can be for relief from anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia.

Dr. Henry Westra, from York University in Toronto, Ontario, and Dr. Sherry Stewart from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia did a comprehensive review of literature and found that CBT is the definite best for anxiety and more effective than other forms of psychotherapy and even appears more effective than medications!

It is worthwhile writing down the key concepts of CBT on a flashcard or other media.  Doing so can ensure that you are habitually reminded to do CBT and then you will be making a huge shift in your life – for the better. 

You will start to see patterns and recognize particular cognitive distortions (anxiety habits) in your thinking and you also learn new patterns of thinking by engaging this process.  

Bottom line: Instead of following bad habits that worsen your anxiety, embrace good thinking and behaviour and enjoy a better life.

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