Introduction & Theoretical Background
It is common to worry sometimes, but if you worry too much it can feel exhausting and may affect your health. Psychologists call this Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). If you have GAD, you may feel:
- Worried
- Anxious
- Nervous
- Tension, aches, or pain in your muscles
- Restless or sleepless
- Distracted
- Easily irritated
- Easily fatigued
- Unable to control your worries
Research studies have shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatment for GAD (Cuijpers et al, 2014). CBT therapists work a bit like firefighters: while the fire is burning, they aren’t very interested in what caused it, but are more focused on what is keeping it going. This is because if they can work out what keeps a problem going, they can treat the problem by ‘removing the fuel’ and interrupting this maintaining cycle.
Psychologists Tom Borkovec, Michel Dugas, and Mark Freeston are among those who have identified key components that explain why some people keep suffering from