Bodily Sensations
Name 2 strategies that can be used to help calm or relax the body.
What is breathing retraining (deep/diaphragmatic breathing), progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, stretching, etc.
During situational exposure when do you use your coping skills?
Before and after, but not during
What unhelpful thinking styles are the following 2 thoughts? “If I don’t do something perfectly, I have failed.” “I’m an idiot.”
All or nothing (or black and white) thinking and labelling
What are the different components of anxiety and how are they related?
Body sensations (e.g., racing heart, nausea, shortness of breath, dizziness), Thoughts (e.g., “I’m going to have a heart attack”, “I’m going to make a fool out of myself”, “I can’t handle this”, “What’s wrong with me”), Emotions (e.g., fear, shame, sadness, guilt), Behaviours (e.g., avoidance, subtle avoidance, safety behaviours, maladaptive coping strategies)
All the symptoms of anxiety can feed off each other. Thoughts can increase physical sensations, physical sensations can promote avoidance, avoidance can increase unpleasant emotions, etc.
What is the goal of Progressive Muscle Relaxation?
To learn what tense/relaxed muscles feel like; to get a rebound effect of relaxing the muscle beyond the resting/starting level of tension
How would you know if you’re engaging in safety behaviours? Or subtle avoidance?
You would know if your are engaging in safety behaviours or subtle avoidance if your anxiety continues to affect your day to day life, despite attempts to reduce the symptoms (i.e it can increase the physical symptoms of anxiety, more worry, more avoidance, always latching on to safety behaviours whenever an anxiety provoking situation arises, anxiety gets worse when you do not use safety behaviours).
What are the two ways we learned to manage our thoughts?
(1) Challenging and changing our thoughts with Thought Diaries; (2) Changing our relationship with our thoughts through Mindfulness
Name 3 pros and cons of managing anxiety.
Pros – can do more things that have been missing out on, can meet new people/maintain current friendships, can go back to work/school, can improve confidence;
Cons – it’s hard work, could impact current relationships, lead to temporary increase in symptoms, focusing on symptoms could temporarily impact self-esteem/self-confidence
Why is it helpful to practice relaxation strategies when we are not feeling anxious?
(1) Easier for us to practice/learn how to use them effectively, (2) Brings down the overall level of anxiety in our bodies
Why is it important to create exposure hierarchy?
You train your body and mind into seeing that the anxiety provoking situation is not dangerous. By staying in a situation that is anxiety provoking you can see the anxiety come down on its own without utilizing coping skills. By continuing with exposure tasks and confronting situations that are anxiety provoking your body will eventually become used to them, and the anxiety will eventually decrease to a manageable level.
What are the 4 components of mindfulness?
(1) Paying attention; (2) On purpose; (3) In the present moment; (4) Non-judgmentally
When can anxiety be helpful? Why isn’t our goal to eliminate/get rid of anxiety all together?
Anxiety is useful in some situations to keep us safe and to motivate us (e.g., staying away from edge of cliff, reacting when something comes in the middle of the road; lead us to prepare/study for a test or presentation).
The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety because it is a natural part of life that we need. The goal is to manage it better so it gets in the way less, and so it doesn’t get triggers as quickly or as much in day-to-day situations.
Explain how you should practice deep breathing explaining the rate of breathing and the location of breathing.
Slow, calm rate (inhale for 4, hold for 2, out for 6); breathe deep down into belly.
What do you do when you’re stuck on a certain step of your exposure hierarchy?
You can break down the step you are having trouble with into another smaller step, you can check yourself to see if you are using any subtle avoidance or safety behaviours OR go back to previous step to see if anxiety was manageable in that step, check for safety behaviours/subtle avoidance.
How can mindfulness help to reduce downward mood spirals?
Recognize when mood is beginning to change, teaches you how to get back in touch with being alive, stops escalation of negative thoughts by focusing on the present moment (not reliving the past or pre-living the future), able to shift mental gears and see the world differently, willing to experience emotions
Discuss how your view of your anxiety have changed from the start of the group to now.
All answers are correct!