Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety

Get ahead of your anticipatory anxiety, and start living with flexibility and peace of mind. Do you automatically assume the worst-case-scenario when faced with difficulty? Do you stress about situations that haven’t happened yet, or find yourself anticipating disaster around every corner? Does the prospect of making a decision leave you feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed? From subtle avoidance behaviors to the most nightmarish terrors, anticipatory anxiety is the engine that drives it all. Understanding how this hidden enemy tricks you, and, most importantly, how to overcome it, will liberate you to live a more flexible and joyful life. In Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety, two anxiety experts team up to teach you how to manage your overactive imagination, limit future-based thinking, face your fears, make decisions, and live with more freedom and joy. This must-have guide is grounded in the authors' innovative and easy-to-remember DANCE model: Discern your anticipatory anxiety Accept doubts and discomfort No struggling or avoiding Commit to proceed Embrace the present as it is, so you can get on with your life Your relationship with your worries and imagination will shift, so that you can focus on what is genuinely important. It’s time to stop worrying about what might happen, start facing your fears, rein in your self-defeating imagination, and live fully in the moment. Get this book and discover the motivation and skills needed to take charge of your anticipatory anxiety.

Discover new medications for easing symptoms Fight anxiety and win the war against your worries! Think you worry too much? You're not alone - over 25 million Americans suffer from some form of anxiety. Help is here in this friendly guide, which offers sound advice on identifying anxiety triggers through taking self-tests, improving your eating habits, relaxing, and finding support for you and your loved ones. Praise for Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies "In Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies, Elliot and Smith have provided a timely and informitive description of the reasons why people become anxious and what they can do about it." - Steven D. Hollon, PhD. Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Powerful skills based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you break free from the fear of uncertainty and put a stop to compulsive checking and reassurance seeking. “How do I know I made the right decision?” “What if I’m wrong?” “I need to know for sure.” Do you have thoughts like these—thoughts that cause you to second-guess yourself, and lead to anxiety, stress, and worry? Do you find yourself repeatedly checking your email for no reason, asking others for their opinions about something again and again, or lying awake at night overanalyzing and planning ahead in an attempt to feel less anxious? If so, you probably have a problem with compulsive reassurance seeking. The good news is that you can break free from this “reassurance trap”—this book will show you how. In this unique guide, you’ll find proven-effective tips and tools using CBT to help you tolerate uncertainty, face specific worrying scenarios, and gradually reduce the compulsion to incessantly seek reassurance. Most importantly, you’ll learn to deal with those pesky “doubt attacks” and trust your own judgment. Asking for reassurance is a self-reinforcing behavior—if you do it, you’re less likely to handle stressful situations without needing further reassurance. And so the cycle continues. The CBT skills in this book will help you break this exhausting and painful pattern, so you can build self-confidence and improve your life.

The fear of doing badly can prevent us from achieving our goals, doing well in our careers or simply enjoying life. Performance anxiety is caused by the demands we make on ourselves and others, and nearly all of us suffer from it to some degree. "Overcoming Performance Anxiety" provides a proven, effective self-help program that is accessible to all. The authors provide a series of simple exercises to help change thought and behaviour patterns, which will allow you to perform with a sense of confidence and pleasure, no matter what the challenge. This book is essential for all those who suffer from performance anxiety and is also of great value for those who feel nervous in public situations. -- From publisher's description.

Captain Bunn founded SOAR to develop effective methods for dealing with flight anxiety. Therapists who have found this phobia difficult to treat will find everything they need to give their clients success. Anxious flyers who have “tried everything” to no avail can look forward to joining the nearly 10,000 graduates of the SOAR program who now have the whole world open to them as they fly anxiety free wherever they want. This approach begins by explaining how anxiety, claustrophobia, and panic are caused when noises, motions—or even the thought of flying—trigger excessive stress hormones. Then, to stop this problem, Captain Bunn takes the reader step-by-step through exercises that permanently and automatically control these feelings. He also explains how flying works, why it is safe, and teaches flyers how to strategically plan their flight, choose the right airlines, meet the captain, and so on. Through this program, Captain Bunn has helped thousands overcome their fear of flying. Now his book arms readers with the information they need to control their anxiety and fly comfortably.

Conquer your fear of flying with step-by-step instructions leading you through proven techniques to travel with ease. You’ve tried to face your fear of flying, but the harder you try to control it, the worse it gets. This book teaches how to work constructively with your brain so you can address your anxiety in different ways that truly help you let go of the fear. Packed with hands-on exercises, this book helps you better understand both the anticipatory anxiety prior to a flight as well as the fear experienced on board—and provides the tools needed to successfully fill the role of passenger, including: • Questionnaires and fill-in-the-blanks • Pre-flight checklists and practice flight itinerary • In-flight panic journal and symptom graphs • Symptom and response inventories • Breathing and meditation exercises Drawing from exposure therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, the methods in this book will help you: • Understand how you became afraid • Discard safety objects and behaviors • Identify signal fears and false alarms • Use the AWARE steps onboard the plane • Recognize and respond to symptoms • Restore your ability to fly and travel

You are not your thoughts! In this powerful book, two anxiety experts offer proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) skills to help you get unstuck from disturbing thoughts, overcome the shame these thoughts can bring, and reduce your anxiety. If you suffer from unwanted, intrusive, frightening, or even disturbing thoughts, you might worry about what these thoughts mean about you. Thoughts can seem like messages—are they trying to tell you something? But the truth is that they are just thoughts, and don’t necessarily mean anything. Sane and good people have them. If you are someone who is plagued by thoughts you don’t want—thoughts that scare you, or thoughts you can’t tell anyone about—this book may change your life. In this compassionate guide, you’ll discover the different kinds of disturbing thoughts, myths that surround your thoughts, and how your brain has a tendency to get “stuck” in a cycle of unwanted rumination. You’ll also learn why common techniques to get rid of these thoughts can backfire. And finally, you’ll learn powerful cognitive behavioral skills to help you cope with and move beyond your thoughts, so you can focus on living the life you want. Your thoughts will still occur, but you will be better able to cope with them—without dread, guilt, or shame. If you have unwanted thoughts, you should remember that you aren’t alone. In fact, there are millions of people just like you—good people who have awful thoughts, gentle people with violent thoughts, and sane people with “crazy” thoughts. This book will show you how to move past your thoughts so you can reclaim your life! This book has been selected as an Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Book Recommendation—an honor bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.