Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal part of life. Those feelings in our body and those thoughts our heads are necessary to keep us out of threatening or dangerous situations.

But for some of us, anxiety interferes with life and daily activities, including work, school, or sleep. Our relationships and enjoyment evaporate in the face of overwhelming thoughts and feelings that we can’t control.

We find ways to deal with our anxiety – whether by going “inside,” and trying to control our thoughts, or by going “outward,” to distract ourselves. Perhaps you’ve tried therapy before, or maybe you’ve read book after book that tells you how to “banish” those thoughts. Maybe you “replaced” those “bad” thoughts with “good ones.” You felt better. Yet, here you are, because those thoughts and feelings keep coming back.

There is a new therapeutic approach that really isn’t new at all. It’s called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) . ACT was developed in the 1990s by Dr. Steven C. Hayes. More than 20 empirical studies have been conducted that show the efficacy of this therapy. Although it is a “cognitive” therapy, it is very different from those treatments that work toward replacing anxious thoughts with good, peaceful thoughts. ACT teaches you to accept those thoughts, to make room for them, but not be driven by them.

We learn to view our thoughts and feelings as something the mind does naturally, but which do not have to be taken as reality. We get trapped because the thought becomes our reality, when it is really a story created by the words in our mind. ACT can help us to separate, or DEFUSE, from the power of our thoughts. As we develop the ability to live in the present moment (MINDFULNESS), we are able to distinguish between a world we created with our thoughts and the one in which we are.

Thoughts about ACT, by Dr. Steven C. Hayes.

Anxiety does more than make you worry. It can also lead to other mental and physical health conditions, including: