Severe anxiety disorder,  victims are people  in my books that should be labeled courageous, not weak and pathetic. The thing that annoys me is someone who has never had the frightening experience can be so quick to judge an anxious person in way they do. They often think you’re just weird or unusual. You need to read this article and start thinking about your self in a whole different way, do not for one moment think you’re weak. I will point out why you should hold your head high.

Never think your weak just because you have severe anxiety disorder!

Majority of the time it is quite difficult for an outsider to image someone could even fear something as simple as an every day task. Panic attacks sneak up so quickly, and they usually happen in an instant without any warning, and this can happens to any most normal person.

You could be a normal happy person today then tomorrow this may be a whole different ball game, panic takes over your thoughts like a house invader whilst you sleep. It starts to take your control away. It can make you fearful of the things you have always taken for granted, going to BBQ s, visiting a shopping mall, even taking a short drive in a car.

Never think you are weird because you suffer from severe anxiety disorder!

The horrible thing about this is, you quickly start to begin to loose all faith in your own capabilities, you find your self frightened in situations that are so familiar to you it is ridiculous for you to even think about being scared. Unfortunately you then tend not go out as much, this is a protection thing so you do not have to face the fear of having an attack. Very depressing.

Do you actually know that severe anxiety disorder victims do the bravest things every day?

You rise every morning and get on with your day, you get up and dust your self off after every set back, and you continue to face the fear on a regular bases. You actually deserve an award for that effort. Many severe anxiety disorder victims fail, not once, but dozens of times daily, weekly, monthly, but you still continue you battle through, this makes you a very big winner.

The good news is there is light at the end of every tunnel for severe anxiety  disorder sufferers!

I will be completely honest here, the hardest challenge I have ever had to face was the 13 years of fear I went through, but the biggest reward for me was, after I learned how to over come sever anxiety disorder, I then gained more confidence then ever before. There has been so many great opportunities and doors have opened up every where.

So for me it has been a blessing in disguise having been a victim to severe anxiety disorder, I personally do not regret a thing, the end result is all that matters and mine has been a good, no a great one.

Severe anxiety disorder can happen to any one do not think you are invincible!

It matters not what the severity is or how often panic attacks occur, the most effective Panic Cure will be to help people learn how to control the attacks. Having fewer and fewer attacks over time is the ultimate goal for those that experience panic or anxiety attacks. As what works for one person may not necessarily work for the next person, so finding a Cure for your dreaded panic attacks can be a difficult task.

The main option in finding a cure that works, would be finding an option that will last for the long term, not one that is temporary and is only able to reduce the symptoms. Taking medication is always an option, but you do not want to do that for the rest of your life. Many doctors will not prescribe anti-anxiety or panic prescriptions long term anyway.

Success can be found more quickly for those that are willing to try different treatments and products, keeping an open mind. Go ahead surf the internet and read the opinions and real life experiences of other people in the same situation. Visit a forum and ask lots of questions when you are searching for information on ways to find a cure for a panic or anxiety attack. See where others have found success or failure with certain products. By talking to others who have suffered the same attacks you will know what may work for you and what will not work.

Success in relief is not always found in a pill. With a little practice and effort there are ways to train the mind and deal with a panic attack. Thousands of people have tried this method as a Panic Cure and it has worked for them. With the effort over time, panic and anxiety attacks will no longer be an obstacle in your life and the frequency and intensity of the attacks will subside.

Ever wondered why some people just breeze through life with no issues, then there’s the unfortunate ones that inherit social phobia disorder, you probably question your self over and over why did i have this condition ,did i do something wrong ,or is it something that just happens. Well let me answer that question for you.

Social phobia disorder, am i just unlucky or is it my fault?

First of all yes it is unlucky that you have social phobia disorder, secondly there is a lot you can do to control it, and there are 100 and 1000 s of people that have this condition, your definitely not alone.

You probably say to self quite often, why me, this is a constant nagging thought in the back of your mind. Well now it is time to stop feeling sorry for your self and understand why you have it, and most importantly how are you going to deal with it.

The main reason social phobia disorder manifests!

Any body is capable of developing social phobia disorder, but some are more susceptible then others, and it is the way you deal with the symptoms that makes all the difference.

Social phobia disorder, am i just unlucky or is it my fault?

Did you know exhaustion is one the key triggers of this disorder?.Mental, and physical exhaustion,
emotion exhaustion. These 3 are the main offenders.

Your diet also contributes, and if you dabble in alcohol or drugs , or have a hectic life style ,this also is classified as physical exhaustion.

Some of us just get so busy, we tend to forget about how strung out we are till the pressure explodes f, by this time it is way to late the horse has bolted, no point shutting the gate. What started off as (GAD) a little normal stress is now social phobia disorder.

Firstly you need to sit back relax for 1 minute think about the way you have approached the situation so far. Has it worked, Answer is no other wise you would not be reading this article.

Social phobia disorder, am i just unlucky or is it my fault?

Social phobia disorder is a condition that makes us afraid to go out in public, because we carry around anxious thoughts that makes us afraid of having an attack.

• Think about for a moment every time you have had an attack, what has happened to you?
• You got scared
• Your heart raced a million miles an hour.
• You were shaky.
• You have bad vision
• etc, etc, etc

Now did it kill you, did you pass out, did it stay for 1 hour. See where this is going, a anxiety attack will not kill you, it is very scary that is all. So you need to do this.

Bye your self a diary, write in that diary every time you feel anxious, what time of day it was, where were you, were you alone or in company. This is calling identifying or observing what ever you want to call it.

Then you need to except, and except this is a huge part of curing process of social phobia disorder. Excepting that it will visit you every day and sometimes twice a day, just prepare your self for the visit.

Ok now for the good bit, you are going to invite, yes you heard me i, invite Mr panic attack into your life.You know he can not harm you in any way except fear, get your self more familiar with the symptom he brings every visit.

Persistence creates resistance, so persist and panic will resist!

Social phobia disorder is an mental illness that prevents people from asociating with society, They prefer to stay at home then face a panic attack in public.This is a common thing for a lot of peoples, it is sad but  this is there only way of coping. I will touch base on some typical habits of someone with this disorder.

Do you suffer from social phobia disorder?

Its Monday morning usual chat with your friends at work, then here it comes, the dreaded invite to a party on the weekend. This suddenly turns your stomach upside down, the first reaction was the tight sensation in your chest, then followed by the rapid heart beat which makes it hard for you to try and remain still. Whilst all this is going on your trying to concentrate on making up another lie to why you cannot attend.

Straight away you plant a seed in your head, I can not possibly go, i may embarrass my self, its best if I stay home. What if I had a panic attack? Oh no, this is social phobia disorder. One of the biggest hurtles to get over is the fear you carry around with you every day, the what ifs, you actually talk you self into a panic situation way before one has ever occurred, its like a revolving door.

The brain is incredibly powerful, it can have 2 very different effects, it keeps you in either total control when you know how to overpower it. Or it can put you totally out of control when it over powers you. What happens is when we feel scared thoughts enters our head, then the brain sends waves to the middle section creating fear, this is when a panic situation starts to raise its ugly little head, the first thing we do is this.

You can cure social phobia disorder!

We try to push the thought away and not think about them, unfortunately this only make the situation worse it gives the thoughts more strength, which then enables them to become stronger and take over. This then becomes much harder to switch them off. By this point your not only concerned about the thoughts that initially triggered this situation, your more concerned about the trauma your body is going though.

Symptoms of a typical victim to social phobia disorder!

* Your hearts beating fast.
* Sweating.
* Dizziness
* Clammy hand
* Fear of passing out or loosing bodily functions.

And the list goes on!

There are 2 different avenues you could take right at this point unfortunately most people turn to prescription medication, which in the long run you will end up with much more issues then anxiety. The natural approach is a very effective and a safe way to cure social phobia disorder.

Quick tips that will free you from social phobia disorder!

* What you need to do is this, you have to learn to let the thoughts in as you can’t stop them, the difference will be how you react to them.
* After you have let them in, give them a name, become familiar with them. The more familiar you are with something the less scary they become.
* Then you need to move on by trying to let them go, slowly push them away out of your mind, this is a technique that we can teach you.

Do not  continue to shut your self away from the world, there is treatment t to get you back out there.

Chronic anxiety disorder very familiar words they are, but  are you really a victims?  Below you will find a short list of symptoms that relate to this disorder. And I will through in a brilliant little  mind trick to help you through the day.

Symptoms almost on a daily bases for chronic anxiety disorder victims!

• Tight  chest
• Dry mouth..
• Tingling sensations in  limbs.
• Fast  hard  heart beat.
• Feeling dizzy.
• Knotted stomach.
• Trembles.

That is just a short list of symptoms of chronic anxiety disorder!

It seems every where you look these days there is so many out dated remedies for treating  Chronic anxiety disorder. It is beyond me how any one is suppose to fix attacks when all the treatment Doctors usually give you just cover up the symptoms.

When we complain about panic in our lives we get told to do the things listed below.

• Think happy thoughts.
• Blow in a paper bag.
• Slow your breathing down.

Come on we both know this will not fix the problem. There is a real solution you can use to cure panic and anxiety attack, i would like to share it with you, it is a technique that allows you to stay in control when a situation occurs. Just to give you a little something now, try this exercise. The method used has had an amazing amount of success. I have used this technique my self, and i can personally say it does works. This is not just a quick fix, it is also a long term solution as well.

Self help will cure chronic anxiety disorder!

You will be surprised with the results, it is very simple to apply, and only takes seconds to put into practice, you can do this all in your head, no one will even no your are doing it.

Physiological Tricks to beat   symptoms of chronic anxiety disorder!

When you feel the onset of a panic and anxiety attack, following this method.

• You need to give the attack a time frame, in this case no more then 20 seconds to come do its bit and then stop the threat.
• Be prepared to let your heart beat fast, sweat and what other side affect your attack usually gives you, it will not kill youLet it know it only has 20 seconds, tell it your way to busy to waste time with it.
• Ask the attack to get on with it, you have only given it a short time to finish its threat.
• You are allowing 20 seconds for it to fully manifest, but not a second more.

Getting the picture here, you are not trying to stop the attack, but now you are taking control on how long it threatens you. Practice this technique when you feel the onset of a panic attack, but give it less time to manifest each time it visits. Getting control back is all it takes to beat panic and anxiety attack.

Its really that simple, do not let chronic anxiety disorder prevent you from living a normal life!.

So my friend, you can beat chronic anxiety disorder, i can give you all the technique you need to do so, just follow through to my website free-from-panic.com, there i can give you the rest of the information you will need for a complete cure, do not keep wasting precious time, life is way to short.

Oftentimes, negative self talk or the negative things we tell ourselves everyday cause us to be anxious even about the smallest things. Anxiety is a part of human life. In fact most psychologists say that a moderate amount of anxiety is healthy, because this is the way the mind warns us of dangers or impending threats to our bodies. It is when anxieties start ruling our lives and preventing us from enjoying our existence that it is considered a disorder.

There are many ways to deal with anxiety, but the one that most doctors and therapists recommend is cognitive behavior therapy. This is a form of treatment where a person goes through a series of sessions aimed to change the way he thinks. A good deal of time during these sessions is spent on changing the thought patterns of a patient that takes him from the anticipatory (expecting the worst to happen) stage to the rational stage. This is done by repeating positive words that can drastically alter his thoughts.

Here are some examples of positive self talk that you can try if you are suffering from daily, irrational anxieties:

1. Today, I am in control. I will enjoy this day because everything will work out right today.

2. I am feeling great. Anxiety is something I can control, not something that can control me.

3. Right now I am aware that there is fear inside me, but I am slowly seeing it disappear and I will be fine.

4. For now, I will focus on doing something positive rather than be gripped and paralyzed by this fear.

5. I am getting to be a better person because I can control my negative thoughts.

6. I will take a deep breath and as I release the air from my body, so will the toxic thoughts in my mind be removed.

7. Anxiety is a bad habit that my body has learned through time. It is not too late to change this habit and channel the energy I spend being anxious into something more positive.

You’ve often heard it said - “You are what you think you are”. There are many instances when the thing you fear most becomes real - this is because sometimes the thoughts that you have in your head become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And so if you think that you will attract disaster, you certainly will!

Do not let anxious thoughts fill your life with fear and misery. Take charge of your life by filling your thoughts

What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Generalized anxiety disorder treatment or (GAD) is a mental state in which your worries and fears happen so much that they interfere with your life to the point where you cannot function or relax. Small things and big things alike make you worry excessively about what might happen or will happen. This in turn makes you worry about something for the rest of the day for no real reason. It also affects you physically. Your body will get tired from all the mental strain and stress and your muscles will ache, you won’t be able to sleep, and be tired all the time.

GAD involves anxiety and worry that is constantly tugging at your mind. Of course everyone has their own problems to deal with and stress over things like health, money, school, family, love, and more but generalized anxiety disorder make a person take it to a whole new level. Small things like someone not returning a phone call turns into someone thinking up new things that aren’t even going to happen or a comment about something bad makes you relate something that is happening into something a lot worse then it is. Whether you realize that your anxiety is a lot more extreme then the situation calls for or that you believe it’s affecting your life negatively, the end result is the same. You can’t turn off your thoughts when you have GAD and they will constantly keep at you and wear your health down.

Symptoms:

The symptoms of GAD fluctuate from person to person. You may notice better and worse times in general or more specific to what time it happens. Stress only adds to the disorder. Some of the symptoms that have been proven are soreness of muscles, trouble falling asleep or staying up, nausea, diarrhea, stomach problems, always tired, and being very edgy. Psychologically you may feel irritated, not able to relax or control your anxiety, the lowering of concentration levels, or even the fear of losing control.

Some children may have GAD but don’t’ realize it and it’s important for the adults to catch the signs of this disorder before it takes a toll on the child. They can spot the symptoms from any of the ones listed above and some of the ones that pertain more to children are: What ifs about the future, perfectionism, the fear of making mistakes, excessive criticism about themselves, feeling like they are to blame for something that wasn’t their fault, or something small like the need for approval and reassurance all the time.

Treatments:

Generalized anxiety disorder treatments are many. A lot of them are psychological. Making necessary life changes may help treat this disorder such as lowering the intake of caffeine, exercising, or changing focus points. For some meditation does wonders, deep breathing, and the ability to relax has to play a big factor. Taking the focus off GAD can be done by taking the problem into your own hands, learning to accept that things happen and challenging the notion that maybe all your worries are not as bad as they seem to be.

Some people with GAD just don’t know how to relax. There are simple easy techniques to learn that can help soothe someones thoughts. The best methods for doing this is to incorporate your five senses seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling.

Seeing - Look at something positive like pictures of cute things or beautiful things in nature like the sunset, the park, gardens. Walk around and look for things that improve the quality of life. Look at the photos and think about the people that you love.

Hearing - There is a lot of music like classical music that is more melody that helps soothe your thoughts. Listen to things that relate to white noise (A neutral sound that cancels noise) things like birds and the sound of waves and if you have no time there are always cds that have those things.

Tasting - The taste of your favorite dessert, things that make you feel more happy about yourself. Food generally tends to make people feel a lot more positive and brings a sense of comfort and completion.

Touching - Pet a pet, touch things that are soft. Get a massage to relax your muscles a lot of stress builds up muscle tension and getting rid of that may just help you.

Smelling - Smell things that bring a sense of relaxation such as candles and air fresheners. Smell the outdoors and all that it brings. The smell of food may be appealing to some, or put on some of those perfume or cologne fragrances that you love so dearly.

Additional Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatments

The key to dealing with anxiety is to accept your anxiety, to make sure that it’s not taking over your life and being careful. Act like nothing is wrong even though it is, usually taking the first step is all you need. Separate yourself from your anxiety, know that it’s an emotion and that it should not control your whole life, you control your life. Be Optimistic and hope for the best of everything. Look to the good and the upside to things that are happening not the bad or things that you might think will happen.

Every person is different so the treatment for every person can be different dependent on their situation, personality, life experiences, etc. There may be a time where professional help might be needed. These people study the human behavior and are trained and studied in the ways of helping people like you. First it is never a bad idea to consult with a professional to make sure that you don’t’ have GAD. Things like trauma and new life circumstances make cause you to have excess stress that is temporary so make sure that you have GAD. Generally GAD is accompanied by other problems such as alcohol and drug abuse,

depression, and other disorders.

Therapy: One method of treating anxiety disorder is therapy. Therapy can be as useful or better then medication for certain people. Therapy has no downsides and cannot have side effects like medicine can. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one type of treatment that is helpful in treating GAD. Your therapist will help you sort out your thoughts and feelings and identity what kind of thoughts are causing you to think the way you do. Cognitive behavioral therapy involves 5 main points:

Monitoring - In CBT you learn to control your thoughts and emotions. You’ll learn to watch what you are doing and analyze why you are having anxiety and stressing.

Education - Knowledge is power. CBT education is a big power because if you know what you are fighting, then you have a fighting chance. It teaches you what anxiety disorder is and the realization in itself is helpful. To know what you are dealing with gives you more power over your mental state and encourages a more accepting and proactive response instead of just worrying.

Physical Control - Things like Yoga and deep breathing techniques.

Behavioral - Attacking your worries head on is always a strategy. Dealing with negative thoughts allows a person’s fears to subside. To think of more positive things like if I worry less then bad things will happen less.

Cognitive Control - Instead of looking to things and seeing fear and worry these therapists will teach you to evaluate your situation and thinking patterns and see why you think the way you do. As you deal with these negative feelings maybe you will find what is really bothering you and causing you the anxiety that you are feeling.

Medication and GAD

There is also the option of medication. They are most likely prescribed by your therapist. The main three types of medication are Busipiron which is the safest drug but it may not eliminate anxiety. Benzodiazepines work very fast but is temporary. Sometimes they may lead to withdrawal of the drug. Antidepressants is the third most common prescribed drug. It’s used to help your anxiety, it is not instant and sometimes may not be working for a few weeks and may even cause sleep problems.

I have been a great proponent that life is what you make it. I do believe that we all create our own life situations and reality by our thoughts, emotions and beliefs! As such, I tend to rely on my own resources to overcome many of life’s difficulties. Relying on medications and prescriptions to overcome many “brought on” conditions is alien to me - now!

But I did not come to these beliefs early in life. Although my parents brought me up to be self-sufficient, I was brought up in the age when great advances in medicine promised cures for just about everything. I believed in their claims, and adopted many remedies for situations that I now know could have been treated with other more natural methods.

While I don’t expect everyone to share my beliefs on this subject, I think it would be unfair if I didn’t at least shed a bit of light on what those alternatives might be.

In the 1970’s just after I got married my wife developed some anxiety attacks. These were quite alarming at times and more than once while driving I had to pull over or get off a highway so she could get a drink of water and walk around outside until we could proceed.

She went to her doctor about this and was prescribed pills. The pills did provide her with some relief but also had the inevitable side-effects. I hate that term because they are really “direct effects”. It’s just that while the key malady for the pill’s development may be relieved, there are many other cell receptors that pick up on the drug and have other effects as well. Nevertheless, they are direct effects from taking the drug.

In any case, my readings and musings and life experience have well convinced me that there are many other ways to overcome the results of many of the lifestyle habits that most of us have acquired, to some degree or another.

Recently I read some information about anxiety and panic attacks which caused my interest due to my wife’s previous bouts with the condition. One of the methods used is the Linden Method. It’s a natural drug-free method for overcoming most of the phobia relating to panic and anxiety attacks.

Given that our lifestyles and society today seem to give rise to numerous unwanted conditions that are a direct effect of just plain living, I thought it would be a good opportunity to start some intelligent discussion on the subject of “patient, heal thyself”.

Yes modern day medicine does have its place, but allopathic medicine really is not the entire answer. We need to examine the cause of many of our conditions and start treating the cause rather than the symptoms.

The Linden Method treats the cause and that’s why it’s over 96% effective. No wonder they can give a 100% guarantee.

I hope to publish more of these types of articles in the future, but if you suffer from anxiety and panic and REALLY want to stop it, you should look at the Linden Method. A great alternative to drugs!

I have suffered with Generalized Anxiety Disorder for a number of years, during this time my weight has plummeted and ballooned and I have found it very hard to maintain a good weight. Prior to Generalized Anxiety Disorder sticking its big nose into my happy and carefree life I was a good weight, fit and healthy. I was a UK10-12, I swam and ran and loved my food. I knew I was prone to putting on weight so would keep a check on my diet and weight and make the changes that were needed.

When anxiety and panic first hit I stopped eating and drank nothing more than a little water. I was often sick in the morning and if I tried to eat was gagging on food. My weight dropped but because I wasn’t skinny to start with it was not considered a problem, except by my hubby who was terrified by how little I was eating. For me what was a problem was that I had no energy, I stopped running and my children were noticing I never ate. I permanently had the shakes which my daughter was fascinated by and still remembers. It was at this time that I was first prescribed anti-depressants.

After the first week on them my appetite came back with a vengeance. I could not stop eating and not good healthy food either, I craved cakes, chocolate and burgers, all high sugar, high carb bad, bad food. I was eating again, that’s all that mattered. The weight piled back on and then some. I kept telling myself I would start being careful tomorrow then I stopped thinking about it altogether. My Doctor had described my medication as “nonchalance pills” and he was right. It just did not matter to me, I was feeling OK and I didn’t have thoughts of getting on the scales. I am grateful, in hindsight, that I did not have this attitude to the kids diet, I managed to maintain a healthy diet that they had always had.

I’m not sure when it hit me or why it suddenly mattered but one day I saw how big I had become, I got on the scales and I was 2 stone heavier. I decided to come off the anti-depressants. I just stopped taking them. Low and behold a few weeks later the anxiety was making my life a misery but this time no sudden weight loss, I was still eating anything that I could get my hands on. I was back at the Doctors being prescribed a different type of anti-depressant and also counselling. Another stone and a half went on this time and I did not feel the benefits of the anti-depressants. I managed to get myself running again but I always lacked energy and spent a lot of time beating myself up about my weight, my diet and how my running had slowed so much - was it any wonder, I was carrying an extra 3 stone!!

I came off that medication with Doctor supervision and with the help of CBT began to feel better, I lost a little weight, felt more in control and began to get my running up to where it had once been. Then there was trouble at work, I had no way of coping, no reserves left, I was highly sensitized to the anxiety I was feeling and panic set in. This time I refused medication, I was more concerned with my weight than anything else - by this time I was a UK 16, the biggest I had ever been. I joined a weight loss programme and began to eat more healthily. I was back to eating five a day and cut right back on sweet snacks. I have a sweet tooth and never want to completely deprive myself of the food I love, but moderation has very much made a welcome return to my life.

As I began to get better I realised that diet is linked into the feelings of exhaustion and self loathing that I had been living with. If you eat rubbish food you feel rubbish, with a good healthy diet and treats as just that, a treat, you feel less tired. It can be hard work at first, you have to make a real effort to get cooking and get moving. I stopped giving myself a hard time about running. I’ll run when I feel like it, I don’t force myself out of bed at 6am to run for an hour anymore. I walk the children to school everyday and I go for a jog when I feel like it. My diet, my health and my attitude improved together and I truly believe that they are all linked together and part of the road to recovery from Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Fear and anxiousness are normal feelings which help us to deal with dangerous situations. They prepare the body for taking action. But as cognitive (thinking) animals, we create fear in unnecessary situations and it can spiral into larger, more pronounced panic attacks. These unnecessary situations are usually just distortions of normal thoughts. We take a typical situation, like a minor medical ailment or accident and our minds begin creating layers upon layers of exaggerated problems which get further and further away from reality.

Do These Negative Thoughts Plague You?

Magnification: Have you ever done this? Let’s say you cut yourself shaving. You say to yourself, “This cut is really bleeding, I could have leukemia!” So you run out and have a battery of tests performed. Of course, the tests come back negative. This kind of negative thinking is called “magnification” whereby small, even insignificant, situations become the seed to a whole distortion of something bigger and much more worrisome. This leads then feeds your panic engine, possibly triggering an attack or episode.

Another kind of anxiety-inducing negative thought pattern is emotional reasoning. In this case, you start to reason about how you’re feeling, which only solidifies unrealistic thoughts. For example, you might think, “I feel like I’m about to crack up, so I must be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” Or “I’m feeling scared right now, I must be really in danger or else I wouldn’t feel this way.” This kind of distortive thinking causes you to leapfrog into evermore unrealistic scenarios, again moving more and more away from what is really happening and feeding that system of panic-inducing hormones.

How To Deal With Panic Anxiety

One of the most successful ways I’ve found to overcome these kinds of negative thought processes is through journaling them and re-reading them to recognize them as they start AND, more importantly, how they ended up to solidify them as being irrational. This method has given me a great amount of personal leverage in controlling my thoughts and staving off larger panic problems. So, let’s say you have a pang of fear over something - it could be anything from a new situation (e.g. “I don’t want to join Toastmasters - they’ll all laugh at me.”) or your inner hypochondriac showing up (e.g. “I hope that stomach pain isn’t appendicitis.”). Write that down.

Next, I try to put down reasons why that fear or anxiousness is irrational. For example, for the Toastmasters scenario, I might write down “Toastmasters is about introducing people to giving presentations. Everybody starting out is new. Nobody will laugh at me.” Same thing with the appendicitis concern. I might even investigate what the real symptoms of appendicitis and even some statistics on how often it occurs in order to write those down next to that irrational thought. At this point, I actively try to reconcile my thoughts with reality - trying to influence my thinking in order to stop propping up distorted realities - hopefully keeping any escalation into a panic attack at bay.

Lastly, I write down the outcome. Was the Toastmaster’s meeting embarrassing? No? People where actually helpful and nice? I note that. Was the stomach ache just gas? I write that down too. I then study these to recognize my patterns of thinking and how they actually turn out, cementing in my mind how these thoughts no longer serve a useful purpose.