Hello and welcome. In this video we're going to look at how you can reduce anxiety using CBT cognitive behavioral therapy CBT can help you recognize the difference between thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physical sensations. It uses cognitive interventions like distraction, thought recording, and thought challenging. The CBT model suggests that the way people interpret react to situations can cause psychological distress. interventions based on the CBT model aimed to correct negative biases in thinking and behavior. It suggests that the elements of psychological distress, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and behaviors are related.

A change in one can produce changes in the others. Now, just before we start, ask yourself these questions if you feel like you're having a panic attack, are these symptoms and feeling truly dangerous? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen? Am I telling myself anything else that is making this worse? What is the most supportive thing I can do for myself right now? Now before we get to reviewing the worksheet, let's look at the anxiety scale.

Where are you on the anxiety scale from zero to 10? Are you at zero complete relaxation, the calm feeling of being at peace? Are you slightly anxious? That passing twinge of anxiety or feeling slightly nervous? might you be a to at mild anxiety? We have butterflies in your stomach, muscle tension, but definitely nervous.

Or are you closer to three with moderate anxiety? feeling uncomfortable, but still in control. Your heart rate is just starting to increase and your breath is becoming more rapid. You might start to notice you have sweaty palms level four is marked anxiety, where you're feeling uncomfortable or spacey. Your heart is definitely beating fast. Your muscles feel tight and tense, and you're beginning to wonder about maintaining control.

Now five on the scale means early panic. Your heart is pounding or you might experience an irregular heartbeat, constricted breathing, dizziness, a definite fear of losing control. You might even experience a compulsion to escape. six out of 10 is a moderate panic attack. You'll be experiencing palpitations, difficulty in breathing and feeling disoriented and somewhat detached. You also may feel panic in response to a perceived loss of control Seven to 10 is considered a major panic attack.

This is where all the symptoms in level six feel exaggerated or are exaggerated. You feel terror, fear of going crazy or fear of dying and the compulsion to escape. Now, let's have a closer look at our worksheet how to use CBT to reduce anxiety. But first, make sure you print out the PDF that's been provided either below or you can have it open on your screen. So if you want to just pause the video, I will wait. We're going to walk through the CBT anxiety worksheet a little bit more step by step.

It's pretty self explanatory but the first parts a little bit tricky. Changing the words you use and changing your negative thought patterns can be a bit tricky. So I'm just going to take a little bit of time on that part of the worksheet. This worksheet has five points on it. The first point is write down what I'm anxious about and my anxious thoughts. This is the part we're going to focus on in a minute.

Point two is where can I get help? It says check the treatment plans. I have my doctor's treatment plan for medications and my own treatment plan. So I know exactly what to do. That sounds like you right. So this is really important.

If you don't have your pain management plan sorted out, your anxiety is going to be much higher. I also have another course called the migraine pain management course, where there's an exact step by step plan for you. In fact, there are three plans to choose from, that you can take to your doctor. To help you with forming a plan, a very detailed plan for you to write out exactly what you need and when you need it. Okay, so the third point on this worksheet is what other options do I have? So who else can you ask for help during an acute attack, or during a period where you know, you might have high anxiety, it might be worth looking into having other people help you.

Point four is what small steps can I take. This is more about during an acute attack. So take your board of medication or take your alternative therapy, whatever works for you, but take it as soon as possible. Take your board have drink some water, go lie down, get your ice packs, you might have a list. I highly recommend having a migraine kit, having all the tools you need right in one place. So all the tools you need for an attack all in one.

Place your medication A bottle of water. If you're nauseous, perhaps having some ginger capsules, whatever you use to get through an attack could be in your kit. Okay, so let's have a look at the very first one. What I'm anxious about is my attack right? my anxious thoughts are and could change to okay they are, I am useless. I need to pick up the kids and make dinner.

But you've got a migraine on its way so you can't do any of that. This pressure increases your anxiety levels. So let's change that to a positive, a more realistic positive. I'm getting another migraine. It's time to be gentle and take care of myself. I know what to do because you got your treatment plan right and you've got a plan B, you take your abortive leave or you text your husband to pick up the kids and you go rest in a dark room.

You will have a plan By the time you finish this course, this part of the process is divided into three steps. So, step one is identify your negative habitual thought processes you have around your migraines, like this pain will never go away, my life is ruined. This is hopeless, It's futile. You might notice the same ones coming time and time. Again, they do have patterns. And this can make it easier to identify the next time.

So step two, once you've acknowledged your negative and probably recurring thoughts, you can validate them. So ask yourself, Is this still true? Is this thought that this will never end that the excruciating pain will never go away? Does it still hold true? Or does the fact that the pain does subside and the pain does eventually go away? And you do Return to your life.

Does that hold true? Now, if you don't have any breaks in your pain with your migraines, I used to get 20 days a month each and every month and I'd have 10 day long attacks. But within those, there's an ebb and flow to the attacks. So you can work on those initially. And now what I mean by this is, there are periods of time when the pain is less intense. And there are periods of time when the symptoms are less intense.

So you can focus on those for a little bit of a shift. That's what you need to focus on. You focus on that ebb and flow and you recall the pain free spaces. Okay. So step three is to devise a more realistic thought. This is where you train your mind to use only realistic and positive words and replace the negative ones with new thoughts like this migraine will pass.

I have survived them for years. Everything will get back on track tomorrow. I just need to take care of myself right now. And how about this one, my life is in fact simple and peaceful. It's not just about substituting your words, it's more so that your mind can integrate the new evidence of a more realistic conclusion in a more balanced way. So this will reduce stress in the moment and long term, and that will simultaneously help stop attacks from escalating by calming down the nervous system.

It's a win win. Now, I hope this sounds like an easy way to use CBT to help you reprogram that negativity bias that your brain has. CBT has great evidence for helping reduce anxiety. Another great thing that helps reduce anxiety is to use your breath. If you're breathing in fully and especially breathing out fully through your nose, it activates the vagus nerve In the lower parts of your lungs, so this not only error rates your lungs more, but it fires up the parasympathetic nervous system. So each breath is actually restoring your body.

When you catch yourself in a spiral of worrying thoughts, just pause and stop the worrying thoughts and visualize a positive outcome. Easier said than done. So here, try this. You could use a long 10 second exhale, and let your breath come back in naturally. If that sounds like it's going to be too uncomfortable, try this. Breathe in and exhale very deeply, three times, count to four on the inhale, and four to six on the exhale, relax, actually say stop in your mind.

See a stop sign or a hand and say to yourself, I know I'll get through this. I know you'll get through this. I've done this before. If you're having an attack, go and find what brings you pain relief right now, acting as soon as possible will give you the most effective pain relief. anxiety can be a migraine symptom, you'll have to monitor this to find out if that's true for you. Now, I really just want to say, Please be kind and gentle with yourself.

Migraines are a really hard journey. And I'm sure when you were little, you didn't dream of having this debilitating condition. This condition is not your fault. It's a neurological genetic condition that they're discovering more and more about every day. It is a brain disorder. So just be a kind and gentle teacher to yourself.

And I'll see you in the next lesson.