I have also learnt that there are certain myths about the anxiety disorders like:
1. Some people are just ‘worriers’ . There’s nothing much can do to make difference to such people. To some extent,we all worry, its normal. Also its true that some people worry more than others, but problem arises when this habit start impacting their lives. So they definitely need help.
2. Anxiety is always taken as ‘normal thing ‘ and never treated as illness.Everyone in their lives get anxious at one point or other. The low levels of anxiety is normal, like anxious before interview or before presentation or meeting someone first time. But such anxiety goes away as the incident happened away. Anxiety can’t be diagnosed using blood test or any other physical tests so mostly its not been taken seriously. But medical experts in these areas like Psychologists, psychiatrists can diagnose it.
3. Mostly people think that people dealing with anxiety can easily just snap out of it, if they want so. But the reality is its not that easy to do.
4. There is one more myth that anxiety is only based on some childhood traumas or earlier negative incidents, but its not always true. Anxiety may be caused by various factors. And CBT works on “here and there” points to deal with anxiety.
As a part if CBT only, another approach used in dealing with anxiety is avoidance:
Sometimes, avoidance of particular circumstance or situation or object can help to control anxiety, or more specifically the normal anxiety. Suppose one is afraid of dogs, get anxious by seeing dogs. So they start avoiding to go at places where there are dogs. But therapists with the help of CBT, make hierarchy of patient’s fears or worries or anxiety triggers from low to high and then start working with patient to face their fear one by one. So starting from avoidance, patient now start facing his/her fears and try to overcome them one by one.
But in case of GAD, ‘coz anxiety triggers are mostly unknown, so CBT may focus less on addressing avoidance and associated behaviours. Instead CBT focuses more to help people understand better the nature of their worry, how to live with the uncertainty and how to identify and address unhelpful attitudes to worry which may be helping to maintain them.
There are a number of factors which can keep the worry going in GAD, and targeting these with the aid of a CBT therapist can play a key role in bringing about change.
These factors include:
1. Engaging in specific behaviours which arise from the worry
Checking things over and over (for example, checking door is closed again n again or checking if gas stove is off again n again), frequently having need to seek reassurance from friends or family that things will turn out OK, or avoiding certain people which we think are cause of worry, which may in the short term appear to ease the amount and severity of worry experienced in GAD. But, in the longer term these behaviours may actually make this type of anxiety worse.
2. Holding dysfunctional beliefs about worry
Most of the people or better say everyone care about their families, friends and in general too. Similarly normally too, people worry about their problems, but with time it lessens. But for patients dealing with GAD have belief system that worry is an effective way of dealing with one’s problems, that it ‘keeps you safe’ or ‘shows you care’ can also help to keep the worry going. Addressing these beliefs in therapy can be a useful step on the road to recovery. For example, a therapist might help a patient to explore some of the other ways they can care for people close to them.
3.Being intolerant of uncertainty
Much of life is uncertain, and the way in which people view this uncertainty plays a key role in how they react to it. Worry is a natural reaction to uncertainty, but it can actually make things worse. Research has indicated that helping individuals to become more tolerant of uncertainty (for example; by learning to spot their intolerance, addressing beliefs around uncertainty, working with a therapist to weigh up the costs associated with being intolerant of uncertainty, and the benefits of living in an uncertain world) can reduce the amount of worry that they engage in.
Lastly, I want to conclude it as: purely based on MY EXPERIENCE n MY PERSPECTIVE….
Though I believe , that facing the situation is always better than avoiding it. But at the same time I know how hard/difficult it is, in case of any kind of anxiety. But at the end of day, how far we’ll avoid our fears, we have to face n fight with them and overpower them. And here comes the need of good and supporting medical help along with family and friends support.
In my understanding, the first step is to understand that we’ve reached this stage( depression/anxiety) in certain span of time, I mean its not overnight that we get depressed/anxious and so in same way we all need significant amount of time to break this vicious circle of depression/anxiety . We have to take little steps say baby steps to start beating our anxiety/depression. Everyday we must start doing one thing differently, some days we’ll be able to do it, somedays we fail but we must keep going, we can make a diary and start noting it down how many days we managed to do that particular added activity,and then add one more activity. Hopefully with the proper guidance, motivation and pushing ourselves ( which I know is very hard, daily doing self-motivation) but we have and we can try with hope and faith that we will come out of it one day. I personally have started one activity, to stand outside my home( as I never go outside without any work like except picking n dropping my son or doctors appointments etc) not without any reason so I started with making effort to stand outside my home for atleast 5 mins daily. Most of the days I fail, but sometimes I succeed too. Its hard to keep trying but im still trying and once I do it in continuation for atleast 7 days I will add one more activity. I know it seems very little step and if we read about it or think about it, it seems it will take whole life to come out of all this, but for me, this is just one of the options for me so I am trying it.
Hope all of us who are dealing with anxiety/depression will keep making effort , seek medical help and come out of this. And its not possible without the support, love, understanding and empathy of family and friends……HELP US TO BREAK THIS VICIOUS CIRCLE, IF FOR ANY REASONS YOU CAN’T PLEASE DON’T INCREASE OUR TROUBLES, WE ARE ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH.🙏🙏….. pratyaya singh #anxiety #generalized anxiety disorder #GAD #perspectives #CBT # Cognitive behavioural therapy #myths around anxiety #mindset #hope #faith #empathy #support #medical help #mental health issues #positive mind set #personal experience #face it fight with it #positivity #motivation #self motivation #family support
