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Challenging Anxious Thoughts PDF

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428 views

Challenging Anxious Thoughts PDF

Uploaded by

sepseppp
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Challenging Anxious Thoughts

Anxiety can be a healthy emotionit forces us to focus on our problems, and work hard to solve them.
But sometimes, anxiety grows out of control, and does just the opposite. It cripples our ability to solve
problems. When this happens, irrational thoughts often play a role.

In this exercise, we will practice catching our irrational thoughts, and replacing them with rational
alternatives. With enough practice, this will become a natural process that can help you manage anxiety.

Describe a common situation that triggers your anxiety:


example: giving a speech in front of a crowd or driving in rush hour traffic

Anxiety distorts our thinking by causing us to overestimate the likelihood of something going wrong, and
imagine the potential consequences as worse than they really are. Sometimes, just taking a moment to
think about these facts can help us recognize our irrational thoughts.

Imagine you are faced with the anxiety-producing situation from above. Describe the

Worst outcome:

Best outcome:

Likely outcome:

Imagine the worst outcome comes true. Would it still matter

1 week from now:

1 month from now:

1 year from now:

Usually, anxious thoughts focus on the worst possible outcomes, even when they arent likely. For
example, a person who is nervous about giving a speech might think: I am going to forget everything and
embarrass myself, and Ill never live it down.

As an outside observer, we know that an alternate, more rational thought might be: My speech might only
be OK, but if I do mess up, everyone will forget about it soon enough.

Using your own worst outcome and likely outcome from above, describe your

Irrational thought:

Rational thought:

2016 Therapist Aid LLC Provided by TherapistAid.com

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