Does CBT Therapy Work For Anxiety?: What It Is, Why It Works and How It Works

Anxiousness is something that most people face, as it is an innate biological and psychological response to a perceived threat. However for some people, this sense of anxiousness can become consuming and relentless, even when there is no real threat or out of proportion with the extent of the threat. This is called anxiety, and it will affect around 30% of people in their lifetimes.

Anxiety can be seen to really get in the way of life, whether that is declining invitations because you are too anxious, avoiding going out in public including work or school, or having persistent sleep difficulties. This is why seeking help for anxiety is crucial to improving a person’s quality of life. A well-researched, high-quality treatment for this is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). But does CBT therapy for anxiety work, and if so, how? Here, we look at what CBT for anxiety is, how it works and why it works.

What is CBT therapy for anxiety?

CBT is a type of therapy that targets identifying and changing certain thinking patterns that lead to mental health conditions, in this instance, anxiety, although it can be used for a range of others e.g. depression, PTSD, personality disorders, eating disorders and so on.

CBT often involves meeting with a therapist, whether that is as a group or individually, at regular intervals to explore how you can learn to reduce your symptoms. This may be in person or online, making it an accessible option as you can receive this treatment from long distances away from the therapist without losing effectiveness.

For more information, you can visit the NHS page on CBT for more information.

CBT being held in person.

Does CBT therapy for anxiety work?

CBT is one of the most researched treatments for mental health conditions and disorders, including anxiety. This means that a lot of time and resources have been spent evaluating it, and CBT has proven itself to be highly effective. Here are a couple of studies showing this:

A review of meta-analyses conducted by Hofmann et al. (2012) found that upon reviewing the effectiveness of CBT on numerous mental disorders and problems, and for many of them (importantly including anxiety disorders) CBT was seen to be effective across.

A different study by DiMauro et al. (2013) found that after their participants with anxiety had undergone CBT, they had significantly maintained the positive effects of it after a 1-year follow up, demonstrating its longer-term positive effects.

There are many more studies demonstrating the effectiveness of CBT for people struggling with anxiety, so if you are interested, it is definitely worth doing some further research.

How does CBT therapy for anxiety work?

CBT is centred around addressing the route cause for your anxiety, and teaching you how to overcome it independently. During your sessions you will be:

• Identifying the underlying thought patterns that is causing this anxiety. This is a crucial step towards changing the way you think as it brings into your consciousness what exactly needs to be worked on.

  
  

• Challenging unhelpful beliefs. This is where you start to reanalyse the situations that you previously perceived as threatening (causing the anxiousness), and re-evaluating them so you can see that they are not.

  
  

• Developing coping strategies. This is a vital step in preparing you to become equipped to deal with anxiety inducing situations, especially once you have completed your course of sessions.

  
  

• Gaining exposure to these situations and practicing behavioural experiments. Through exposing yourself to the situations, you can reformulate your beliefs and thinking patterns upon being faced with it again outside of the therapy environment.

Here we have talked about the basics of CBT for anxiety. Learning about treatments for anxiety disorders just like this is so important, it allows to to become more knowledgeable when taking your initial steps in getting help and support for a disorder that can become so consuming and limiting.

At Unlock Psychology, we offer CBT for anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, ADHD and more. If you are considering starting therapy for your anxiety, we offer free consultations to see if we can help you. You can visit our page for more information and guidance.