Cognitive behavioural therapy for worry and generalised anxiety disorder

This chapter presents an overview of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). The symptoms of GAD are thought to result from spiralling, habitual, inflexible interactions of cognitive, imaginal, and physiological responses to constantly perceived threat. CBT is based on the premise that most of the therapeutic change takes place between sessions and is the consequence of client practice and application of CBT techniques. GAD clients develop the habit of worrying in multiple situations. Such a habit creates numerous internal and external cues that over time come to trigger worry responses in and of themselves. Applied relaxation (AR) is a technique in which clients actively let go of tension on a moment-to-moment basis whenever they detect initial anxiety cues or subtle shifts toward anxiety. Self-control desensitisation (SCD) is an imagery technique that was designed to be applied to anxiety problems such as GAD, in which there are no discrete phobic stimuli.