How To Reduce Anxiety Through Rational Thinking

Anxiety is not always rational. In fact, one of the infuriating things about anxiety for super logical people is knowing that their anxiety “doesn’t make sense”, and judging themselves for not being able to stop feeling anxious. If you can park the self-judgment (unhelpful thinking of labelling, personalizing, or “shoulds”), logical thinking can be very effective in reducing anxious thoughts. The key is to identify where your thoughts may be distorted, unhelpful, or irrational so you can replace them with more true thoughts.

Identifying the ways these thoughts are distorted, whether in the moment or afterwards, can help diffuse their power, breaking the vicious cycle of anxiety. Using logic to fight anxiety can help restore balance & rationality to thoughts that often go unchecked. Evaluating where your thought process may be skewed helps can keep anxious thoughts in check, with the goal of adopting some more rational thoughts to replace the anxious ones.

This exercise is a classic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) tool called a Thought Record. Think through a time you felt anxious recently, then answer the following questions to identify any distorted thinking & find an alternative thought:

What happened? 

How did you feel?

What was your automatic negative thought?

What evidence supports that thought?

What evidence challenges that?

What’s an alternative thought? 

For example, I recently was walking my dog in my neighborhood when a large dog escaped from its backyard and started to fight my dog. I felt rattled and overwhelmed in the moment. The next time I went to take my dog for a walk, I felt pretty anxious. Anxiety was telling me “It’s going to happen again” (unhelpful thinking of jumping to conclusions). Expecting to be attacked again left me feeling guarded and scared. Yes, I had reason to be scared given what just happened, and similar previous experiences. But I also had to remind myself that I have walked my dog on that same path hundreds of times, and it’s only happened once. Rather than let my thought of “It’s going to happen again” go unchecked, I had to consciously think “It’s unlikely this will happen again, but I can take steps to protect myself.” With this new thought, I felt cautious rather than anxious and empowered to not give away my regular walk to anxiety.

Take a moment to reflect on where anxious thoughts have been unchecked this week. If you feel stuck, reach out. Sometimes we need to borrow other people’s perspective and compassion before we can practice it for ourselves.

Need help treating anxiety? Reach out to schedule your free 15 minute consult to get started on anxiety therapy in Dublin, CA today. Reaching out to start counseling can be nervewracking, but we’ll talk you through the whole process and make it easy.