There is one very useful method in cognitive behavioral therapy: postponing anxiety. Works well for customers who have:
generalized anxiety disorder
other anxiety disorders
just a lot of anxiety not reaching a clinical level
a long and unsuccessful history of anxiety therapy
Anxiety and anxiety: what's the difference
In English, there are 2 separate words with a clear difference in meaning: worry and anxiety. Both are translated into Russian as "anxiety, anxiety", but in fact the difference is significant. Worry is what happens in your head. Spinning disturbing thoughts like "what if", thought through the negative outcomes and bad scenarios, drawn scary pictures and so on. This whole process is called worry.
Anxiety is felt in the body, these are disturbing bodily symptoms: nervous excitement, muscle spasms, tension, tingling, chest heaving and so on.
It is clear that often they are both at the same time, but the specific method I am talking about is concerned with worry, that is, anxiety in the head, and then I will be under the words "anxiety and anxiety" to mean exactly the "head" process.
How anxiety works in the head
People think that anxiety is useful and necessary. For example, they may believe that by worrying, they are thinking through possible bad scenarios, and thus reduce their likelihood. Ostensibly it helps to prepare for the worst outcome.
"When I go through the different options, how things will go, I can understand where you can lay the straw, if that.»
"If I am ready for different outcomes, then I will be easier to survive if suddenly one of them happens.»
Or, for example, people may be convinced that constantly thinking about something, they thereby show their responsible attitude, or thus they force themselves not to forget about the important.
"No, I can not take and stop worrying about it — because I'm really lazy, I just do not do it then and all."
"If I think carefully about all the details, I try to do my job well."
Surprisingly, these statements are hard to argue with, right? Sometimes such tactics are really useful: to foresee, to think over, to prepare, to approach responsibly to the Affairs. What's wrong with that?"
But here's the thing: in the case of constant anxiety, the same tactic does not lead to any result in reality. Things are not done better, the future is not predicted, it is impossible to prepare. As a result, a person has X hours spent on twisting different thoughts in his head, but in reality nothing has changed, only for some reason he is very tired and irritated. The process of anxiety in the head is absolutely useless, but very voracious in terms of resources of the body.
In addition, people are convinced that they simply can not control this process — a constant anxiety in the head.
As always, the "you take it and just stop it" approach won't work. Some are helped to realize why it is useless (see above), after which they immediately reduce anxiety. But not everyone is so lucky. You can use cost-benefit analysis to compare "keep worrying" with an alternative, such as "accept uncertainty and solve problems." A number of other CBT techniques can be used. Fast and just works homework to postpone the alarm.
Snooze alarm: the steps
Imagine that you are an official working with the complaints of the population. Every day you are in your office. If you receive all the visitors at any moment when they come to you, you will not be able to do anything else, because people go an endless stream. In addition, in the evening can happen in General congestion and a huge queue that you do not rake until the night. Therefore, you need to set office hours. In office hours you receive all without exception, who will come to you. Listen to everyone and try to help, do what you can. If someone shows up outside office hours-you say: "Sorry, but the reception today from so many to so many, and now alas, I can not accept you. Come back later." Let us consider at what time of the day would it be convenient for you to appoint visiting hours for your anxious thoughts?
I recommend to choose a time in the late afternoon, but not before going to sleep (for 2-3 hours before bedtime).
Clients often ask 3 questions in connection with this exercise. Note the "what if" anxiety and the lack of appreciation of your coping abilities-typical of anxiety.
"What if no one comes?"The answer is: if no one comes, fine. What would you do as an official? Open the door and ask-there is anyone in waiting lists? No? Okay, I'm gonna go do my thing.
"And what if they both fall on me at once, I can not cope?"Answer: this is unlikely to happen — so far no one has talked about such cases. If you are very worried about this, you need to say exactly how he will cope.
"Should I deliberately, deliberately think them?"Answer: if you are the official, you will run out on the street with shouts" Hey, somebody, well come to me already, please!!"Of course not. Go do the crossword.
Expected result
Postponing during the day is relatively easy.
In the evening, no one comes to the office hours.
The client is surprised and understands that, firstly, it is possible to control, and secondly, no trouble because he did not twist the thoughts in his head, did not happen. He did not become less responsible, did not forget about important things, did not take rash risks and so on.
Frees up a lot of time in the head, less fatigue at the end of the day.
I recommend removing the exercise when the results no longer cause surprise and surprise, but it is realized that this is indeed the case: you can control it, there is no benefit, there is only a waste of resources.