Challenging Anxious Thoughts
Anxiety is a common mental health condition that most people have dealt with at one point in their life. Why don’t you take a moment to think about a time when you felt really anxious. Try to remember as much as you can from the following event. Once you thought of the moment, try to remember what you did to help you deal with the anxiety. Did that work for you? If what you did worked then that is great! If not then that is fine as well! There are many different ways to deal with anxiety and today I will give you another tool that you can use.
One of the things that I tell my clients to do when they are dealing with anxiety is to challenge their anxious thoughts. This may sound strange to you. Like how do you challenge a thought? Well this can be done by asking yourself a series of questions. Now these questions have to be specific and have a purpose. The purpose of these questions is to find out whether the anxious thought is a rational or irrational thought. Why is this important? Well a lot of time anxiety comes from irrational thoughts that play on our fears, worries or insecurities. When this happens it often makes it difficult for people to solve problems or make decisions. This technique is designed to help you work through these thoughts to help you determine if what is causing your anxiety is an irrational thought. If it is then you can figure out how to deal with the anxiety.
Here are the questions you should ask in order to challenge your anxious thoughts:
What situation or event is causing you anxiety?
What is the worst outcome of this situation or event?
What is the best outcome of this situation or event?
What is the likely outcome of this situation or event?
Imagine if the worst outcome comes true will it still matter…
1 week from now
1 month from now
1 year from now
After answering all of these questions about your anxious thoughts should help you realize whether your anxious thoughts are rational thoughts or not. A lot of the time for clients just figuring out that their worries are not as bad as they originally thought will calm them down greatly. I challenge you to try this technique out the next time you are feeling anxious about anything. If you need help or would like more tools to help you better deal with any issues that you may be struggling with then please reach out to me or another mental health professional for help!
Written by Nicholas Pujol, RMHCI
