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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Disorder

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There will be times in your recovery when you might feel like you’ve hit a brick wall. That is, you have been doing much better and your recovery is moving along. However, one day, you unexpectedly become anxious. So what do you do when this happens?

To answer this question, I will provide some points about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for panic disorder.

Here are some suggestions.

1. You need to recognize that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is something that you can do at any time; it is not restricted to times when you’re feeling anxious only.

What sometimes happens is the following: one feels better so he/she stops using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for panic disorder. One stops "talking back" to his/her thoughts. This enables those anxiety producing thoughts to creep back in. It's not necessarily an instant reaction, but slowly some of those old patterns of thinking return and your anxiety increases.

2. You can’t solve a problem that is caused by the same thinking that created it.

You have to look at your own thoughts and generate alternatives that are more accurate.

Here are some examples of thoughts you might have when you feel that things are insurmountable:

“There is no way out.”

“This just proves that none of this works and I can’t feel better.”

These thoughts are not necessarily obvious but are likely reflected in your feelings.
One way these emotions are reflected in your thoughts is by virtue of how the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy model works.

As I’ve said many times, you need to be a good detective with your thoughts because the particular thoughts that are causing your anxiety are unlikely to be immediately obvious.

I really like one of the things that Anne Dranitsaris, Ph.D. states, that is very relevant here:

"Most people are in the habit of getting upset because of automatic thoughts. Recognizing the automatic thoughts are creating emotions and observing what we are doing in our mind helps us to change our reactions and create less drama in our lives. When emotional reasoning rules, feelings are mistaken for facts. Emotional reasoning makes stress worse, depression deeper, anxiety higher, and anger hotter."

In other words, if you feel emotional or sad, you examine the evidence: For example, your thoughts might be: “Well I feel sad because I feel like I failed?” But, if you think about it, have you really failed or have you simply experienced a challenge in life like everyone does?

This is the notion of restructuring your thoughts. An alternative thought is "you have simply experienced a challenge in life like everyone else does” would be an example of an alternative thought. A thought can definitely be in the form of a question.

One of the things I learned through my own self-discovery, is that often when I was feeling really bad, I would become very anxious and on one level I would think something like the following:
“see I knew this wasn’t going to work”

The problem is I bought into the original thoughts that came with the initial onset of my panic attacks. In the moment it’s hard to recognize that – you can’t see the errors in your thinking.

3. You need to be more objective. And the good news is that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is not just for panic disorder but it can be useful for the everyday challenges you experience.

You hold the wheel in your hands to control your thoughts – and that’s what’s really amazing here!

Keep the following in mind: even if you are carrying out Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on a regular basis there are naturally going to be challenges in life that arise. These require you to refocus and regroup and but that’s how you become successful in our recovery. Once you regularly work through these things then you will be doing.

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