Different Types of Anxiety Therapies
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You may suffer from anxiety disorders if you are experiencing constant fear and worry about the situations you face every day. This fear and panic will interfere with your activities and make you less productive. Luckily enough, this condition is treatable with any of the following therapies.
Interpersonal Therapy
This type of therapy is aimed at re-structuring relationships and social roles. You should aim to work closely with your therapist to identify any personal issues you may have such as unresolved conflicts with friends or family, challenges you face at your workplace, or any other personal issues you may be having. After identifying personal issues, your therapists will guide you on some healthy ways to improve your communication with the people surrounding you.
Exposure Therapy
Exposure therapy aims at exposing you to situations that trigger anxiety and how to deal with them. Your therapist will use the systematic desensitization technique to introduce you to anxiety-producing events. The technique is a series of three steps, which are:
- Relaxation- Your therapist will guide you on relaxation techniques such as guided imagery, meditation, and deep breathing to aid you in combating any anxiety.
- List- With the guidance of your therapist, you will rank some of the activities that lead to anxiety, and you will also rank them according to intensity
- Exposure- Your therapist will guide you to avoid any anxiety by using different relaxation techniques.
The therapist may use the following ways to trigger an anxiety-producing situation.
- Imaginal exposure- Your therapist will instruct you to imagine any of your anxiety-provoking situations vividly.
- Vivo exposure- You should deal with your anxiety-provoking situation in a real-life situation. If you face social anxiety, you can be told to present a speech in front of a crowd.
- Virtual reality exposure- This method is ideal when Vivo exposure can’t be used. You can be exposed to dangerous anxiety-provoking situations in virtual reality since this method incorporates advanced technology.
Cognitive Therapy
It focuses on diverting some of your thinking patterns and beliefs associated with triggering anxiety. The basis of this therapy is that beliefs will lead to thoughts that will trigger behaviors and feelings. Some of the cognitive therapy strategies include attention training, rational self-talk, and reality testing. You will be able to test some of the effects of negative thoughts.
Maximizing On Anxiety Therapies
The following are some of the best practices for maximizing your anxiety therapy sessions when you visit your anxiety therapist Denver CO-based.
- Participate in all the activities while doing therapy
- Ensure you have a support system
- Ask questions or clarifications that you don’t understand
- Minimizing any stress
- Focus on recovering from anxiety disorders
- Always express your feelings, and you should not pretend that you are fine.
Living with anxiety will have a negative impact on your daily activities, and it may also lead to depression in extreme cases. If you notice you are suffering from anxiety disorders, you should seek help from a professional anxiety therapist to guide you on the best practices to deal with the anxiety.