There are a number of CBT techniques that are commonly used to help
people challenge worry including: thought records, thought stopping,
worry time, challenging the value of worry, problem solving, experiments
to increase intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive exposure. Let’s
take a look at them one at a time:
Thought Stopping: Thought stopping is a technique that can be used to stop worry when it occurs.
For
example, many people who work Monday to Friday start to worry about
work (and all of their other problems) on…Sunday night. One worry seems
to spiral out of control into worrying about everything. At such a time
worrying typically doesn’t help people solve any problems. It just leads
to a bad night’s sleep. At times when your worry seems like it is
spinning out of control, you can try to use thought stopping to shock
yourself out of the process. The basic idea is to startle yourself, so
that you get out of the “worry loop” in your head. There are many
different ways t do it but the basic idea is to imagine a big “Stop”
sign in your mind and yell “Stop!” three times (If it is late at night
or there are other people around, you may need to yell into your pillow
or just imagine yelling the word). Believe it or not, some people this
technique to be extremely helpful. Don’t knock it until you try it.
Ashley, Health Educator
