Working on my thoughts isn't that easy! What now?

Working on your thought patterns, especially those that have been there for a long time isn't easy! Many issues can arise during this time such as —

1) When you're anxious you can't think clearly enough to challenge your beliefs.

2)You have no way of knowing whether your anxious thoughts are realistic.

3) Even though you're aware of your exaggerated thinking, it's hard for you to believe the alternative/realistic thoughts.

4) Challenging your thoughts with evidences, you conclude that indeed your thoughts are true.

Let's try to address these below!

1) If you're too anxious to apply the strategies when in the situation, try using em when you're less anxious, e.g. before you enter the situation or after the situation ends.

2) This can arise if you have avoided the feared situation for a long time. In this case, you likely won't have past experiences to evaluate beliefs. However, you can carry out experiments (like we talked about in the previous step) and collect the evidences.

3) if you have believed the opposite of something for a very long time, it's normal that suddenly believing it to be true won't be easy. The key here is consistency. Keep at it, with times the beliefs may grow stronger. Experiments and exposure can also be effective in changing your anxious thoughts.

4) In some cases, you anxious thoughts might be true. For example, people might really judge or tease someone who comes across very shy. You can consider why this is happening and take steps to change the behaviour(s), if you really want to.