If you need help with anxiety, instead of running away, you can learn from this example of the application of cognitive behavioral therapy to some very specific problems.

Question: “How do I cope with a panic attack? How do I stay on the bus, etc. without jumping off and walking home? How do I calm myself down?”

Coping with a Panic Attack instead of Running Away
Many who ask how to cure panic attacks and how to handle them can find this information useful.
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For the purpose of the example in this installment let us imagine that the above questions were posed by an individual with the name Jane (obviously the person’s true identity will be held in confidence).

Jane’s question really deals with two issues: 1. Needing strategies for coping with a panic attack, and 2. Dealing with one’s anxiety in day-to-day tasks.

Initially though with the above statement, the thoughts in the background are not that clear. Therefore you have to look a little further before doing an analysis with CBT. This is the often the case. I sometime refer to this process as “detective work” It’s not that hard to complete this process. One can simply ask him or herself the following question: “What could be the thoughts in the background?” or “What might be my underlying thoughts?”

I’ll show you what I mean.

The second part of Jane’s question deals with the aspect of conducting day-to-day tasks such as riding the bus. Do you think there might be cognitive distortions lurking in the background? Jane certainly has an overall thought which is: “I cannot take the bus home because I get too anxious.” We can work with this.

Before reading directly below, I recommend that you click here (don’t worry a new window will open up so you won’t lose your spot) and look at the list of cognitive distortions and then try to locate what possible distortion(s) might be present in Jane’s thinking. Once you’ve done this, write the distortion(s) down and then come back to this spot.

Okay, welcome back.

If you guessed that the following four distortions are present, then you’re right:

1. Disqualifying the positive;
2. Jumping to conclusions – fortune telling;
3. Magnification;
4. Emotional reasoning.

I will explain look how each distortion is actually present and then look at some alternative, more realistic, thoughts.

Now it’s time to analyze the thinking behind the question: “How do I stay on the bus, etc. without jumping off and walking home?”

1. Disqualifying the positive – By asking this question Jane is very likely overlooking many times that she rode the bus or things worked out fine.

2. Jumping to conclusions – fortune telling – Jane is predicting in advance that she will not be able to ride the bus or other things – while she may feel anxious it does not necessarily follow that she will be unable to ride the bus.

3. Magnification – This distortion refers to the tendency to exaggerate the seriousness of something. In this case, while Jane stays on the bus she may feel anxious, while she might feel some anxiety, but she will not die of her anxiety or panic attack.

4. Emotional reasoning – While, again, Jane may certainly feel anxious when she rides the bus, just because she feels anxious, does not mean anything really bad will happen.

Now let’s try to generate some alternative, more accurate thoughts that Jane can substitute in place of the ones containing distortions. Again, before reading on, try to generate some on your own. Once you’ve done this, write them down or type them out and then come back to this spot.

Okay here are some alternatives:

Just because Jane feels that she cannot ride the bus does not make it so. While she may feel anxious on the bus nothing really bad will happen.

Jane cannot know for certain that she will absolutely have a panic attack on the bus. Again while she might feel anxious it does not follow that she must jump off the bus and walk home.

While it is likely that Jane will feel anxious on the bus, if she can continue to expose herself to fear overtime she will be able to work through her anxiety. This exposure will allow her to work through her panic attacks. The tendency to avoid the bus actually makes her anxiety worse – in the overall grand scheme. So doing some exposure therapy can be helpful.

Jane can continue to learn many strategies that can help her in coping with a panic attack.

I would like to end by discussing a large research study which analyzed the results of 66 different studies about how people’s emotions affect their creativity.1 The most germane here is one of the findings that the better people feel emotionally, the more creative they are. The opposite is true the worse they feel. That is, the worse the feel, the less creative they are.

Of course CBT makes you feel much better, and it allows you to be more creative. As you can see, after we identify the cognitive distortions causing our anxiety, we are then in a much better position to generate healthier thoughts that not only make us feel better. But unleashing our creativity can lead to our own useful ideas and strategies that can help us adapt to various situations that might be contributing / causing our anxiety.

Reference (Help with Anxiety Attacks)Reference (Help with Anxiety Attacks)

Reference (Help with Anxiety Attacks)A. Boyes. How to Enhance Your Creativity: Links between Creativity and Emotions.
Retrieved November 2, 2010 from Dr. Alice Boyes’ website:
http://www.aliceboyes.com/creativity/A. Boyes. How to Enhance Your Creativity: Links between Creativity and Emotions.
Retrieved November 2, 2010 from Dr. Alice Boyes’ website:
http://www.aliceboyes.com/creativity/