Research in Anxiety-Disorder, and Related Health Issues
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy comes up a lot in the research pages, so I decided to do a little Googling, and came up with some decent resources to help find a definition. At first I was inclined to poo-poo the idea altogether, because in the past while I was in the midst of a massive attack that had nothing to do with my state of mind, I was told, you can make it stop right now by changing the way you think.
You can imagine how unhelpful I found that answer. It turns out, that was the dark side, the bright side is that even for those of us who are attacked by GABA misfiring in our bodies, and have anxiety attacks or panic attacks, we have developed a whole system of messed up thinking as a result.
An example. Joe loves to go to the library. One day Joe walks in and an attack suddenly comes on him. First he is convinced that everyone in the library knows what it happening to him, and are sneering at him. He leaves the library in a panic, goes home, and decides Everyone in town knows I’m crazy.
The leaps in logic Joe took to come to that dramatic decision are mind boggling. First of all, chances are not one person noticed Joe, even during his anxiety attack. Second, he is the one that decided everyone knew and was laughing at him, no one said anything to him, at all. He based all of it on a thought he had while having an anxiety attack. Admittedly, that is not hard to imagine. But breaking that train of thought for Joe, later when he does seek help, is going to be difficult.
Once the doctors get Joe on a medication which helps the GABA part of Joe’s life, the therapist can begin to help Joe understand that most of what he thought was built upon 1 + 3 = 34687598. It didn’t make any sense. It was irrational thinking. For that I recommend David Burns excellent book The Feeling Good Handbook.
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