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Anxiety

Fear and its associated reactions (freeze, flight, fight) can be useful responses to a dangerous or threatening situation. However, clients suffering from anxiety disorders experience these reactions too strongly, too often, or in inappropriate situations - and they can be distressing and exhausting. Psychology Tools can help you with CBT for anxiety - our anxiety worksheets are designed to help clients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), health anxiety (hypochondriasis), panic disorder, phobias, and social anxiety.

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What Is Anxiety?

Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

Different anxiety disorders are characterized by various foci of concern.In addition to disorder-specific cognitive content, individuals experiencing anxiety disorders are likely to experience physical symptoms of anxiety including:

  • palpitations or accelerated heart rate

  • sweating

  • trembling or shaking

  • dry mouth

  • difficulty breathing

  • a feeling of choking

  • nausea or abdominal discomfort

  • dizziness

  • derealization or depersonalization

  • fear of losing control or passing out

  • fear of dying

  • hot flushes or cold chills

  • numbness or tingling

  • blushing

  • fear of vomiting

  • urgency or fear of urination or defecation

Psychological Models and Theories of Anxiety

One broad conceptualization of anxiety can be summarized by an ‘anxiety equation’ (Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1985; Salkovskis, Forrester, & Richards, 1998):
Anxiety = (perceived probability of therapy × perceived cost or awfulness of danger)÷ (perceived ability to cope + perceived ‘rescue factors’)
Disorder-specific ‘CBT for anxiety’ cognitive models have been developed for all of the anxiety disorders. These are helpful in that they direct the therapist’s attention toward key interpretations and behaviors that act to perpetuate the anxiety disorders. For example, the critical mechanism that Clark identified in the cognitive model of panic (1986) is that body sensations are misinterpreted catastrophically as signs of danger, with concomitant effects upon emotions, behavior, and secondary cognitions.

Evidence-Based Psychological Approaches for Working with Anxiety

Cognitive behavior therapy has a strong evidence base for treating all of the anxiety disorders. Key components of CBT for anxiety interventions include exposure to the feared situations or stimulus, and an experimental approach to test the accuracy of beliefs.

Resources for Working with Anxiety

Psychology Tools resources available for working therapeutically with anxiety may include:

References

  • Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. L. (1985). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. New York: Basic Books.

  • Clark, D. M. (1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24(4), 461–470.

  • Salkovskis, P. M., Forrester, E., & Richards, C. (1998). Cognitive–behavioral approach to understanding obsessional thinking. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 173(S35), 53–63.

Links to external resources

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