Rethinking anxiety: Learning to face fear | Dawn Huebner | TEDxAmoskeagMillyardWomen
TEDx Talks・14 minutes read
Excessive anxiety can hinder productive action, triggering a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response in our brains. A psychologist recounts using cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy to help her son overcome anxiety, emphasizing the importance of challenging mistaken thoughts and externalizing anxiety.
Insights
- Excessive anxiety triggers a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response in the brain, hindering productive action, while a controlled level of anxiety can be beneficial in preparing individuals for challenges.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy are effective tools in managing anxiety by changing thoughts, actions, and gradually confronting fears, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and correcting thinking errors to alleviate anxiety and face fears effectively.
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Recent questions
How can anxiety be beneficial?
By sharpening our senses and preparing us for challenges.
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Summary
00:00
Overcoming anxiety through exposure therapy and CBT.
- A little anxiety can be beneficial, sharpening our senses and preparing us for challenges, but excessive anxiety can hinder productive action, triggering a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response in our brains.
- The speaker, a psychologist, recounts her son Eli's childhood anxiety, which escalated despite reassurance and avoidance strategies.
- Seeking help, the speaker turned to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on changing thoughts and actions to alleviate anxiety.
- To help Eli confront his fears, the speaker used exposure therapy, starting with gradual steps like bribing him to go outside and face his fears.
- Eli eventually overcame his fears through exposure therapy, leading the speaker to write self-help books on CBT for anxious children.
- Despite her success, the speaker struggled with public speaking due to anxiety, eventually using exposure therapy to gradually overcome her fear.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and correcting thinking mistakes that fuel anxiety, such as overestimating likelihood, catastrophizing, and self-doubt.
- Externalizing anxiety as a pest that aims to make one feel scared is suggested as a helpful tool to combat anxious thoughts.
- By challenging mistaken thoughts and externalizing anxiety, individuals can learn to cope with fears and worries more effectively.
- The speaker concludes by highlighting the importance of accurately assessing risks and correcting thinking errors to manage anxiety and face fears.
14:50
Overcome anxiety by facing fears with support
- Externalize your anxiety by recognizing it as your worry speaking, challenge incorrect thinking by rationalizing the fear, and gradually face fears by practicing exposure with support, such as going up stairs with incremental steps while acknowledging that fear is temporary and not a true threat.
- Utilize tools like deep breathing, mindfulness exercises, and distractions not to avoid fears but to calm the mind and body, understanding that anxiety is a false alarm that can be overcome by moving towards fears rather than shrinking away, akin to relaxing in a Chinese finger trap to find freedom.
