The Anxiety Getaway by Craig April Ph.D

Author:Craig April, Ph.D [April, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642500585
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2020-04-30T03:22:35+00:00

Nara’s experience is another good example of the three ways false beliefs create anxiety and permeate one’s life. Nara contacted me for help with “lots of worries.” These included worries about acing her college exams, a long-running tendency to re-read passages to confirm she was comprehending them, and a frequent concern about leaving her phone behind. Causing further anxiety, she took three times as long as others to complete her assignments. If that wasn’t enough, Nara was also overly apologetic if or when she felt she “messed up.”

During our initial discussion, it quickly became clear that Nara had an intense fear of making mistakes! At some point in life, she adopted false beliefs that making mistakes always led to “bad things happening” and that they diminished your worth as a person. To Nara, mistakes somehow meant that she was less than. Nara committed to changing these false beliefs as they led not only to time wasted, but also to intense anxious suffering!

The reality is we are all fallible beings. We make mistakes, but mistakes are part of learning! Perhaps it would be best to call them errors. Doesn’t the term “error” seem less loaded and judgmental than “mistake”? The truth is, no matter what you call them, we will continue to make them until we learn. All errors offer this opportunity. That’s a fact. And even then, there is no failure. To call something, someone, or yourself a failure over an error is a judgment and false belief. For instance, Thomas Edison made thousands of unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb. During that time, he reportedly said, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Nara worked hard at exposure—she stopped herself from re-reading passages, checked only once for her phone, decreased her apologies, and even purposefully made mistakes on homework assignments. But she also put the required effort into modifying her false beliefs, and soon saw great success! She was no longer panic-stricken over the prospect of making a mistake and even believed that it was okay to make them from time to time. Nara maintained her progress, understanding fully that it was essential to change the false beliefs that created her anxiety in the first place. For if she still believed it wasn’t okay to make mistakes, she would create the same anxiety problem all over again, thus spinning her wheels.

Belief and Fear: Partners in Crime

False beliefs are the common theme throughout all anxiety struggles. Let’s for a moment consider a fear of elevators. Unless an elevator has detached from its cable and is plummeting to the bottom floor toward a bone-crushing, fiery crash, the survival instinct’s fight-or-flight response is likely being triggered without any real danger. Say hello again to false fear messages. And where did they originate from? You’ve got it! A false belief.

There can be no fear without belief. How could there be? To be afraid, you must believe that something is harmful to you in some way! If you believed

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.