As we well know, psychology is that discipline in charge of guiding and helping people who are going through some type of emotional problem. Anxiety is one of the most common problems that usually appear.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the branches of psychology that has proven to be most effective in curing anxiety and proposes a series of techniques that aim to eliminate it. In this Psychology-Online article, we are going to let you know which are the best cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques for anxiety.
Types of anxiety according to cognitive psychology
There are 2 types of anxiety, one of them is healthy anxiety and it is the one in charge of keeping us safe from any real problem that threatens our lives. Thanks to anxiety we can react, for example, to the attack of a person or wild animal, we will try to protect ourselves from a natural disaster, when we cross the street the same fear of being hit by cars makes us look before doing so, etc.
However, there is also the pathological anxiety which is what, instead of helping us get ahead, only harms us. Some examples of anxiety-related problems would be social phobia, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, among others.
Diaphragmatic breathing for anxiety
Diaphragmatic breathing is the most frequently used in cognitive-behavioral psychological therapy. Knowing how to breathe correctly brings many benefits to our physical and psychological health. When we breathe properly our blood is oxygenated and purified. On a psychological level, the benefits experienced by breathing correctly are that our anxiety and stress levels considerably decrease, it makes us feel calmer and our energy even increases, which is extremely beneficial, especially when doing sports.
But, How to practice this type of breathing? Below I will briefly explain the simplest and most practical way to carry it out. Remember that the more you practice it, the better results you will get.
- Sit in a chair or lie down in a comfortable place where you maintain a straight posture.
- Place one of your hands on your abdomen and begin to breathe slowly and deeply. (Be careful that your breathing is not too deep as you could hyperventilate)
- Hold the air you have inhaled for a few seconds, feeling how your abdomen has risen. (You can hold your breath for 5 to 15 seconds, for example, as long as you feel most comfortable)
- Exhale slowly, expelling the air through your mouth and feeling your abdomen descend.
- Repeat this exercise 2 or 3 times a day.
Jacobson progressive relaxation
It is one of the most used in the treatment of anxiety. This type of technique is based on tensing and relaxing each and every muscle in the body, allowing the person to experience the difference between tension and relaxation. Finally, by tensing each muscle too much, the person will value and experience more the pleasant sensation of keeping them relaxed. This technique is carried out in person during therapy, although it can also be done through audios where the person does it at home individually as long as they learn to carry it out correctly.
Progressive relaxation step by step
The steps to follow would be the following:
- Sit up straight or lie down in a comfortable place, in an environment with little noise and light. Close your eyes, disconnect from any type of thoughts or worries that may exist at this moment and focus your attention solely on bodily sensations.
- Carry out training diaphragmatic breathing previously mentioned.
- Tense and relax each of the muscle groups. It begins with the muscles of the face, such as the forehead (wrinkles and tenses), eyes (closes tightly), nose (wrinkles), mouth (closes by squeezing tightly), tongue, neck, shoulders (contract, rise), arms, hands (close tightly), chest, back, abdomen (contract), feet and finally the legs.
- This state of muscular relaxation is maintained for a few minutes while imagining extremely relaxing and pleasant places and/or situations.
Systematic desensitization therapy
First of all, a list of situations, people or things that are feared which are causing anxiety to occur. Situations are noted from least to greatest fearFor example, in the case of social phobia, it may be that there is less fear of talking to a person who is more or less known, from there it will continue to talk to a stranger, then present a topic in front of 3 or more people, etc.
The person is then asked to adopt a comfortable position, close their eyes and begin to imagine the first feared situation, that is, the one of least intensity. You are asked to imagine the entire scene, who you would be talking to, what you would be saying, where you would be, etc. as vivid as possible and at that moment, when you begin to feel anxiety, you are asked to simultaneously perform the diaphragmatic breathing exercise and notice how your anxiety levels are reducing.
After having worked with that situation and having managed to reduce your anxiety levels, you continue with the next one and so on. The purpose is that when he has to face the situation live and direct he feels calmer and can also use diaphragmatic breathing if the situation allows it.
Live exposure to eliminate anxiety
This is the last cognitive behavioral therapy technique for anxiety since it is used when the person is practically ready to start approaching what they fear. You know when a person is ready to do it when they have already carried out the aforementioned techniques to reduce their anxiety levels, their perception of what causes them fear has improved and the person is motivated to eliminate the problem.
Live exhibition: example
Live exposure in cognitive-behavioral therapy is carried out gradually based on the list that we have already made previously of the situations where lower to higher anxiety occurs. You begin, as was done in the exhibition in the imagination, with the situations that cause the least anxiety and from there you move on to those that cause the greatest anxiety.
When the person faces their fears live and direct, it is recommended that they carry out breathing exercises such as diaphragmatic breathing so that they feel comfortable in their moments. Following the previous example, we should gradually expose ourselves to real situations where social encounters take place.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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