General Anxiety Disorder is one of the most common Anxiety Disorders in America today. It is characterized by uncontrollable, excessive and usually irrational anxiety in everyday life.
CBT has been found very effective in treating anxiety disorder, especially in the case of GAD. The reason why CBT is so effective is because it targets the main cause of the GAD, i.e. the uncontrollable thoughts.
The thought pattern of GAD sufferers generally follows the same pattern. It starts with something trivial; a normal concern for someone or something and then the worry gets worse and worse until the GAD sufferer blows it out of proportion.
GAD sufferers are known to take a small event or matter, and evaluate and interpret it to death. The “what if thoughts” are the main reason behind this evaluation and interpretation. This is actually quite normal when the sufferer is in a constant of anxiety. The “what if thoughts” and the evaluation and interpretation of each possible outcome to a situation is the normal procedure of the brain when it is in the anxious mode.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy makes the sufferer understand their thought pattern and teaches them how to stop the anxious thought before it develops into a vicious cycle of worries and anxiety. Identifying the thought patterns or problematic thoughts also known as “Cognitive Distortions” is the first step in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. If the person is able to recognize that the thought is actually unreasonable and there is no need to further exaggerate this fear or worry, it will be much easier for them to stop the anxious thought.
The GAD behavior of being constantly anxious becomes a habit for the sufferer. CBT teaches the sufferer relaxation techniques and ways to unlearn the anxious behavior and see things more accurately. Slowly by practicing the new behavior many GAD sufferers are able to overwrite their previous programming of being anxious at everything and become more relaxed and calm.
Numerous studies and researches have shown that CBT is extremely effective in treating GAD. There are a large number of experiments that have shown that GAD is an effective. One of the well known studies by Cochrane Review confirmed the effectiveness of GAD which was done in 2007. It included 25 studies with over 13,000 participants. The study showed that 46% of GAD sufferers showed a significant improvement in their anxiety symptoms after being treated with CBT. On the other hand, out of those who were treated with medication or some other form of psychotherapy, only 14% showed significant improvement.
