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Behavioral therapy helps you learn to act in ways that help reduce your anxiety. It may include exposure therapy. This involves working with a trained counselor to seek out objects or situations that cause your anxiety. Behavioral therapy can work well for phobias and social anxiety disorder.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you spot and change your ways of thinking or acting that add to your anxiety. It works for many anxiety disorders, including:
Changing your thoughts and behaviors
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you get rid of thoughts that make your anxiety worse. For example, if you have panic disorder, you may worry that you’ll die from your symptoms (like a pounding heart). This treatment can help you see that this isn’t likely. If you have social anxiety disorder, it can help you learn that other people aren’t always watching and judging you.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy and behavioral therapy both work to change the ways you act that add to your anxiety. For example, if you have a phobia of being bitten by a dog, you may avoid dogs. This makes your fear worse because you never learn that most dogs won’t bite. A counselor can help you slowly spend more time with friendly dogs. Over time, you can work through your feelings of panic.
This type of therapy can also help by teaching you certain ways to reduce your anxiety, like focusing on your breathing and other ways to relax.
To get the most from therapy:
- Find the sources of your stress by keeping notes or a journal.
- Focus on positive behavior, not negative.
- Make time to relax and have fun.
- Talk with your counselor, your family, and your friends.
- Focus on positive results.
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