Stuck in an Anxiety Spiral? CBT Therapy for Intrusive Thoughts in Newmarket

As adults, we’re used to being responsible for our lives, our routines, finances, and day-to-day needs. However, there are various things in life that are simply out of our hands. If you find yourself constantly trying to predict outcomes or prevent “what if” thoughts, you may be stuck in an anxiety spiral without even realizing it.

Our brains are wired to look for patterns and anticipate what might happen next. Though this has served us in the past, it can also be a mental mechanism that leads to stress, anxiety, and a constant need for control.

How Anxiety Spirals Are Related to Control

Anxiety doesn’t always look the same for everyone. It can range from needing things to be done a certain way and feeling frustrated when they’re not, to repeatedly asking for reassurance or double-checking decisions. These examples may seem widely unrelated, but what they have in common is displaying an anxious behaviour, they often come from the same place: discomfort with uncertainty and a need for control. 

Anxiety spirals are often driven by intrusive “what if” thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are normal. Some are random or even silly, like imagining dropping your phone off a bridge. However, anxiety gives certain thoughts more weight. Instead of letting them pass, you may start to believe them, think they are a reality when really they are not, and anxious behaviours follow in order to try and prevent these intrusive thoughts from occurring. Though, this cycle only makes intrusive thoughts occur more often and get worse over time as the anxiety is only temporarily avoided rather than faced head-on.

How CBT Therapy Can Help

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are connected. It is easy to get stuck in a cycle of lack of anxiety previously mentioned due to avoiding fully feeling negative emotions, which only makes them grow bigger and scarier over time. 

CBT is one of the most effective treatments for anxiety and intrusive thoughts. It works to make an individual aware of their unconscious cognitions, such as intrusive thoughts that lead to avoidance of negative emotion, and cause negative anxious behaviours. 

CBT therapists are trained to help people with anxiety and intrusive thoughts understand where the feeling of lack of control stems from, what negative emotions are associated with them, and slowly help you confront and feel these emotions so that they pass without becoming too overwhelmed by trying to uncover everything all at once.

You Can Make Peace With Not Knowing The Future

It can be hard to believe that a life without constantly having to predict the future or do things to prevent ‘what if’ intrusive thoughts is impossible. However, with CBT therapy, you can work with a professional to understand what exact emotions, thoughts, and behaviors are keeping you trapped in an endless cycle of anxious behavior.

At Healing Voices Psychotherapy, we provide CBT therapy in Newmarket, and across Ontario. Book a free 15-minute consultation today to learn how CBT therapy can help you regain control over your own emotions and deal more rationally with predicting the future.