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:
Worry Time: Worry time is another
simple technique that many people find extremely helpful. If you find
that you worry all of the time or nearly all of the time, try setting
aside a regular time each day to do all of your worrying and then do
ALL of your worrying during your Worry Time. So, for, example, if you
decide that your Worry time is between 7:00 pm and 7:30 pm, then you
have to do all of your worrying at that time. You set aside that time to
worry each day and during that time you do nothing but worry. Your job
during Worry Time is to worry as hard as you can. When Worry Time is
over you get up and get back to doing something else. Distraction
usually works to help people stop their worry time. If you find yourself
worrying outside of your Worry Time your job is to delay or “put off”
the worry until Worry Time. It is not as if you are not going to worry
at all. You are just delaying the worry until later. Don’t make a list
of things to worry about during Worry Time. The basic rule is if the
worry is important you will remember it at Worry Time. If it isn’t
important, you will forget it…but then but wasn’t important any way. Try
this technique for a week and see how it works for you.
Many people who try this technique and actually set aside Worry Time each day find it very helpful.
What strategy works for you?
