What is Anxiety? BSC *click on the speaker to start audio on each slide

This module will help you: Develop a general understanding of what anxiety is How to help you create awareness around your anxiety Understanding avoidant behaviours and how anxiety is reinforced Skills to start managing your anxiety today

Understanding anxiety? Anxiety is a fear response that is basic survival instinct - it is meant to protect us This response is both mental (e.g. worry thoughts) and physical (e.g., racing heart, sweating, nausea, neck/back pain etc).

Anxiety is normal Everyone experiences anxiety Anxiety is meant to motivate us and protect us Motivate us to get to work on time, prepare for an upcoming presentation, etc When anxiety begins to interfere with our basic functioning (e.g., work, relationships, self-care, etc) this is when we need to build in understanding and control

Anxiety Cycle You have a anxious / worry Thought Situation occurs Anxiety Cycle e.g., Asked to give a presentation Avoidance backfires = increases anxiety and only provides short-term relief e.g., “I can’t do this”, “everyone is going to judge me”, “I am going to sound stupid” You have a anxious / worry Thought e.g., “I am going to just stay home” Behaviour response: efforts to AVOID or escape the feeling of anxiety Feeling of anxiety / worry and panic

How is anxiety reinforced? Anxiety can be made stronger and more intense through avoidance and automatic repetitive thoughts (meaning thoughts we think everyday) *important to note: our mind does not know the difference between a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ thought. It only knows what is reinforced daily What we think and do daily will get stronger whether it is helpful or not

Automatic thoughts What is an automatic thought? It is a thought we have daily (multiple times a day) largely without our awareness – anxious thoughts are usually worry or ‘what if’ thoughts E.g., “I can’t go to work everyone is talking about me” or “what if I mess up”, etc What this thought does is fuel anxiety whether it is true or not When we feel anxiety our automatic reaction is to avoid the potential scary / fearful situation Again avoidance tells the anxiety it is true and needed and this reaction and thought will get stronger

The spiral effect Anxiety usually gets triggered from a particular situation or feeling (e.g., at work) Most times if this anxiety is not managed it can spiral into other areas of our life (e.g., relationships, social anxiety, etc) without our awareness school Work anxiety relationships Common thoughts: “I never use to feel this way” or “I never use to be anxious about going out” Self care

Racing thoughts Many people with anxiety note they have racing thoughts However when people actually start to pay attention to the thoughts that are fueling their anxiety there is usually only 3 or 4 main thoughts racing through their mind

Our Thoughts Are Not Facts Important note: our thoughts are not facts Meaning just because we think something does NOT make it true or accurate However, when we think something everyday we will begin to believe whether it is helpful or not and it will affect how we think, feel and behave For instance, if you tell yourself everyday that you are not competent at your job you will begin to believe it and feel anxious and as a result performance may drop or you may stop attending

Magnification How else can I look at this? People with anxiety usually tend to magnify a situation Meaning when thinking about a situation (e.g., work presentation, coworker, etc) we tend to make the problem bigger than it is When this happens we do not question are thinking to consider: How else can I look at this? How accurate is this thought? Is their a real fear here?

Creating awareness First step to managing anxiety is being aware of how anxiety is interfering in your day to day life For example – what are you avoiding because of anxiety - you may be avoiding the mall or work due to anxiety (remember every time you avoid you are telling the anxiety it is needed and this response will get stronger) Start keeping track of when you feel anxiety and if there is any thought fueling Can be a thought like “I can’t go today” or little to no thought and just a reaction – patterned anxiety

The 3 C’s – Catch it, Check it, Change it In order to challenge and change our thoughts we first have to catch them. First: Catch the thought as best you can (e.g., “what if I do this wrong, what if I lose my job, what if my coworkers do not like me” , etc) Meaning when you start to feel anxious this is the time to start managing and controlling anxiety as opposed to having it control you!

3 C’s Check it When you are able to catch the thought that is causing anxiety - e.g., “what if I did something wrong”? – you need to check it out! Asking yourself questions to start thinking about the situation differently will help slow the thought and the anxiety reaction Every time you are able to catch and challenge a anxious / worry thought you are changing the way your brain responds to that thought

Challenge Questions When you catch your anxious thoughts use the questions below to help challenge the thought. This gives us a different, more balanced way of looking at a situation What other explanations could there possibly be? Is there evidence to support my thought or not support it? Are my thoughts helpful? How else can I look at this? What might be other ways to view the situation? How might someone else view the situation? What would I tell a friend in the same situation? What is the worst possible outcome? The best? The most likely/realistic?

3 C’s Change it After you have caught and checked out your thought now is the time to change it – actually change your anxious thought to a new thought. This can be the hardest part because it is foreign to you. It is a new way of thinking.

Challenge your thought here to come up with balanced thought Thought Record Thought records can be used to help track thinking and balanced thoughts You simply have to write down your anxious thought and come up with a balanced more accurate thought Challenge your thought here to come up with balanced thought Anxiety Producing thought Balanced Thought e.g., “what if I messed something up at work?” e.g., “I have not been told I have messed anything up yet. I’m a hard working. If something were to happen I could handle it”. ∙Every time you replace the anxious thought with the balanced thought you are giving the anxious thought less power. ∙ You are telling the anxiety you do not need it anymore ∙ The balanced thought will begin to become your new pattern of thinking

Module Summary Anxiety and worry is a normal part of human functioning Anxiety is meant to be helpful however when anxiety starts to negatively effect areas of our life (e.g., work, relationships, etc) it should be managed Anxiety cycle – what we reinforce will get stronger – Thought  feeling of anxiety  avoidance

Module Summary Automatic thoughts – happen without our awareness and fuel anxiety and behaviours The spiral effect – anxiety can start to trickle into other areas of our life that never use to be a problem Racing thoughts – can be a few thoughts going over and over in our minds Our thoughts are not facts! Just because we think something does not make it true – we need to challenge / check out our thoughts Magnification – when we feel anxious we tend to make things a bigger deal than they are and tend to not look for other perspective (challenge questions)

Module Summary The 3 Cs – Catch it, check it and change the thought You can use tools like a thought record to help build control and awareness into catching anxious thoughts, checking them out and changing them into more balanced ways of thinking When we do this we become more in control, our anxiety lessens to normal levels and we develop a new pattern of thinking When you finally realize you can control your thinking it is liberating

References Tolin, D. F. (2016). Doing CBT: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Behaviors, Thoughts, and Emotions. Guilford Publications. Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive-behavioral therapy. Clinical textbook of addictive disorders, 491, 475-501.