3 Most Common Thoughts Associated with Anxiety
Anxiety is caused by negative, irrational, and often future oriented thoughts. As a therapist and counselor that specializes in treating teens and adults with anxiety I have heard a countless amount of anxious thoughts. I have noticed a few common themes within the anxious thoughts that my clients have shared with me. If you are experiencing anxiety see whether your thoughts coincide with one of these themes. It is important to be aware of what your thoughts are so that you can change them.
The first category that anxious thoughts fall into are thoughts about health. I have had many clients worry that they are going to get a disease, or already have a disease. They fear that they will get a disease that will prevent them from taking care of their children or working. They fear that they will get a disease that will be debilitating. A common example is a person that is having issues with anxiety thinks that their heart palpitations they experience when feeling anxious or while having a panic attack is a sign that there is something wrong with their heart. I advise any client that thinks that there could be any health issue to see a doctor and get tests done. What ends up happening with people who have anxiety about their health is that they go to the doctor, get checked out, and find out that there is nothing physically wrong with them and what they are feeling is anxiety. A client that has anxiety about their health might look at the internet and read about various diseases and think that because they have one or two symptoms they meet criteria to be diagnosed with a disease. When in reality they would need five or six of the symptoms to meet the criteria.
The second common category that I have seen anxious thoughts tied to is death. This is similar to worrying about health and having a disease. A person will have thoughts that they will catch a disease that will end in their death, or that they will get into a car accident that will end in their death, or that something terrible might happen that will end in their death. A person who has anxiety about dying worries that they will leave their children behind with no parent, or that their spouse will become a widow. This fear of dying can become paralyzing and make a person feel worried to engage in certain activities because they fear they might die.
The third common category that I have seen anxious thoughts tied to is a fear of failure. A person that has a fear of failure often also lacks self confidence and has low self esteem. A person with a fear of failure does not go after their goals because they fear that they will fall short and be unsuccessful. A person who has a fear of failure might not go after the job they want, a promotion that they qualify for, or put themselves out there in the dating world because they fear they will never be able to get what they want. A fear of failure paralyzes someone from going after their dreams and they can get stuck in a life of mediocrity.
As a therapist and counselor I always explore with my clients what the source of their anxiety is. It is important to do so in order to be able to change the negative thinking patterns. Negative and irrational thoughts cause anxiety. In order for you to stop being anxious you must learn to challenge your negative and irrational thoughts. Check out my blogs on how to use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to help you change your thinking patterns. Click on the links below to check out my blog on how to do the following techniques:
- How to use the 3 rational questions to fight anxiety
- How to challenge anxious thoughts with a chart
- How to fight a fear of failure
- How to use positive affirmations to defeat negative thinking
ABOUT ROBERTA ALVES:
Roberta Alves is a therapist and counselor at the Essence of Healing Counseling in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. She is a Certified Anxiety Specialist and uses a scientific and evidence based type of therapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Research has shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is proven to be extremely effective in treating anxiety. Roberta is truly passionate about the work she does and loves serving her clients in Ft. Lauderdale and the surrounding South Florida areas. If you want to learn the proven techniques to overcome your anxiety, schedule an appointment today.
