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Thu Dec 13, 2007
Getting Specific About Symptoms
One of the most important ways of combating anxiety is to get specific. Anxiety is inherently vague. Clients often say that they don't know what exactly they are anxious about but that worries are always present. Half of the battle here is becoming your own detective and monitoring your thoughts.
What are the specific thoughts that are constantly running through your mind? Does it tend to be the same thought over and over, or are there a series of different thoughts? If they are different, are they related by a similar theme? We need to be able to study and name the enemy in order to get our arms around it and neutralize it.
This tactic may seem obvious and straightforward but often to be able to slow the mind down enough to jump in and put words to each issue one by one can very difficult. Some people find it useful to monitor their thoughts by writing them down. Some therapy techniques even go so far as having clients carry around devices that beep and require them to record their specific thoughts at the time of the beep.
The important thing is to be able to accomplish this important first step of treatment by moving from vague to specific.
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