I am going to start CBT soon. (Just need to find the right therapist and enough time in my ridiculously busy schedule to do it). I have read some of the materials that people on this board have suggested, so I have some idea what it is about
. I think it will be good for me. I don't like rambling and bullsh...ing about
problems. Instead, I prefer identifying a problem and working in a directed way toward fixing it. And it seems like CBT does that.
But a lot of what I have seen deals with convincing yourself that you are overestimating risks, that it is not as bad as it seems, etc.
But what about the stuff that REALLY IS bad? It is not the case that every time you are anxious about something it is because you are over-estimating the risk. Sometimes you know exactly what the risk is, and what the consequences are likely to be -- and that is why your anxious.
Are the coping skills for dealing with "stuff that is real" different than the skills necessary for coping with "stuff that is not real"? Seems to me they must be.
Put another way, if you live in constant fear that a tiger is chasing you, then maybe through CBT and other work you can learn to convince yourself that a tiger is not chasing you, and that when you start to think that a tiger is chasing you, you should write down that a tiger is not chasing you, and realize that there are no tigers in your city, and that nobody in your city has ever been chased by a tiger, etc.
But what if a tiger really is chasing you? (I know, run fast!). How do you deal with that anxiety?
The analogy is not great, but I think you get the idea.
Thoughts much appreciated.