Anxiety: Cognitive

Now that we have discovered behavioral ways we can manage our anxiety during the pandemic, let's move onto the cognitive aspect. Recall that anxiety has 4 components: 

As you can see, the cognitive component to anxiety encompasses our thoughts in response to the anxiety-provokoing situation. Do you remember the cognitive triangle? Thoughts were one side to the triangle and we used thoughts distortions, or thinking traps, to attack our negative thoughts and rationally work through them. We can use the same technique with our anxiety. Watch the video below for a quick review on thought distortions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI3DgbZc7_o

Stop and Review:

Remind yourself that thoughts are not facts! Use the strategies above to work through the thoughts thart stem from your anxiety by seeing your thoughts from multiple perspectives and reworking them. Think through alternative outcomes and also how you can cope with those outcomes. Try your best to look at the situation objectively and avoid blaming yourself; do your best to find at least one positive view of the present situation and one positive view of the future to come of it.