CBT for Anxiety Issues

Dr. David Steinbok works as a psychologist in his own practice in Boca Raton, Florida. One of the common psychological issues David Steinbok treats is anxiety, which can have a negative impact on the quality of life of the person dealing with it.

One common therapy used for anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which can be used for various types of anxiety disorders, including social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and panic. In CBT, patients and their doctors examine the ways in which the patient’s thoughts and behaviors interact with their anxiety. Patients also identify, challenge, and seek to replace negative thoughts.

Many patients with anxiety fixate on negative thoughts. These thoughts can include blowing a potential situation out of proportion, predicting the occurrence of a situation that is both negative and unlikely, or jumping to conclusions without sufficient data. In CBT, patients learn to counter these thoughts with more realistic ones by taking the mental distortion of old thoughts into account. By consciously fighting unwelcome thoughts, patients undergoing CBT can train their brains to diminish thought processes that lead to anxiety episodes in the long run.