How to Challenge the Panic and Worry of Stress
PsychCentral blog: Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood
by Christy Matta, MA
July 2011
Often people worry about their worry. It’s not uncommon to be stressed about your stress-response. In the absence of accurate information about the symptoms of your stress-response, you may develop faulty thoughts that cause fear and anxiety and additional stress. If you have serious concerns about your health and question whether your symptoms are stress-related or a sign of some other health problem, you should seek medical help. The following are challenges to distorted or faulty thoughts about stress and anxiety adapted from Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective by Aaron Beck, M.D. and Gary Emery Ph.D. (2005).
PsychCentral blog: Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood
by Christy Matta, MA
July 2011
Often people worry about their worry. It’s not uncommon to be stressed about your stress-response. In the absence of accurate information about the symptoms of your stress-response, you may develop faulty thoughts that cause fear and anxiety and additional stress. If you have serious concerns about your health and question whether your symptoms are stress-related or a sign of some other health problem, you should seek medical help. The following are challenges to distorted or faulty thoughts about stress and anxiety adapted from Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective by Aaron Beck, M.D. and Gary Emery Ph.D. (2005).
- Distorted Thought: My stress will never end.
- Challenge: Change is the nature of life. Both those events that create strain and those that have positive effects will come and go, like waves in the ocean.
- Distorted Thought: I’m going crazy
- Challenge: There is no evidence that high anxiety or stress causes psychosis
- Distorted Thought: I’m losing control
- Challenge: You might experience intense emotions or be rigid or tense, but it’s unlikely that you will become out of control.
- Distorted Thought: I can’t function
- Challenge: It may be uncomfortable, but it is possible to perform tasks (even public speaking) when you’re very stressed and anxious.
- Distorted Thought: My stress-level is intolerable
- Challenge: Stress can be very painful, but is rarely intolerable. It’s likely that you’ve tolerated high degrees of stress in the past.
- Distorted Thought: I’m dying or having a heart attack
- Challenge: The physiological response to stress might make you feel weak, but it’s unlikely that you’re dying. If you can move around actively you are probably not having a heart attack.
