Symptoms
One of the most common symptoms of an anxiety disorder
Excessive Worrying
Does everyone have triggers?
YES!! Everyone experiences intense feelings which can be reminded through triggers.
Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4, exhale for 4, rest for 4.
Box breathing (4-4-4 breathing)
Anxiety isn't a real illness.
False! Some anxiety is natural (and can even be helpful), but an anxiety disorder is an extreme form of anxiety that causes impairment, and it's a very real illness.
What is the name of the two characters we were using for the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex?
Alarm Cat and Wise Cat
What is an anxiety symptom that happens in cats?
What is one of your triggers of anxiety when at home?
_________________
What game did we play during the first session to learn coping skills?
Coping Skills Basketball
Some people are just worrywarts and can't be treated.
False! People can help get it under control by several treatments like therapy.
What is our ultimate enemy when we feel anxious? ("Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same...")
Avoidance
One of my anxiety symptom is...
____________
What is a trigger?
The "Feelings" that anxiety has (e.g. Shortness of breath, racing heart, sweaty, dry mouth, feeling weak, no energy)
Name a coping skill we learned that can help calm your body
5 second muscle squeeze
Do a Somatic Knot
Balloon breathing
People with anxiety could just snap out of it if they really wanted to.
False! It's very difficult to just overcome anxiety disorders without help.
True or False: Thoughts are facts
False!!!
Some people that are anxious, also feel...
Frustrated, angry, annoyed
Give an example of a Thinking Trap
All-or-nothing thinking: seeing everything as black and white
Emotional reasoning: believing emotions to be evidence of the truth
Mind-reading: immediately assuming that someone is thinking something negative about you
Overgeneralizing: whenever something difficult happens you think it’s going to happen over and over again
Fortune-telling: predicting situations with only negative outcomes
Labelling: wrongly attributing a negative label to either yourself or someone else
Personalization: wrongfully assuming responsibility for something
People never get over anxiety.
FALSE!! People CAN control their anxiety.
Is this a cognitive symptom or a physical symptom? "Everyone's going to laugh at me!"
Cognitive symptom
Name the Thinking Trap: "I feel like a failure, so I am a failure"
Emotional Reasoning
What do you do when you are triggered?
__________________
Name your favorite coping skill
_________________
Anxiety disorders are very common.
True! About 18 percent of American adults - nearly one in five - experience some type of anxiety disorder in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Name your favorite thing you learned about this group and one way to improve it
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