A three step process for reducing anxiety symptoms

As a practicing psychotherapist with thousands of hours under my belt, I frequently encounter anxiety disorders. Anxiety stems from a number of factors. Often, there is a physiological basis related to the mind-body connection. Other times, it stems from habituated thought patterns—an inclination to “overthink.” Typically, though, it results from people either focusing on things outside their locus of control or lacking awareness of what is within their control in the first place.

Regardless of the causes, I often share with my clients a three step process that typically garners positive client feedback. When dealing with anxiety, first ask yourself to identify and rate the intensity of the emotion on a scale of one to ten. Second, determine if you can immediately discern what triggered it. Third, evaluate the extent to which you have control over the trigger and take some action towards rectification.

The value lies mostly in the first step. By rating our anxiety, we shift it from the emotional to the logical, seeing it as a problem that can be addressed rather than a feeling that overwhelms us. Even if we fail to identify the trigger, the very act of rating it signals to our subconscious that we have more control over our emotions than we initially believed. Furthermore, if we ultimately conclude that we have limited control over addressing an identified trigger, the act of taking some action, however small, provides us with a greater sense of empowerment over the circumstances that created it.

While I would like to take credit for inventing this process, I cannot say with certainty that I didn’t read it somewhere, filed it away in the back of my brain, and thus forget the proper attribution. Nonetheless, clients who utilize this process report, at a bare minimum, an attenuation of anxiety symptoms.