Julie Cohen
Marriage and Family Therapist
Julie Cohen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist MFT and a Child Mental Health Specialist with a private practice in Los Angeles. Her areas of focus include: depression, anxiety, panic, post-traumatic stress, bipolar…
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Treat Your Anxiety By Believing It Will Get Better Part 2: How To Start
10
Posted in Agoraphobia & S... by Julie Cohen on Feb 18, 2011
Some of the readers to part one of this article posted that they wanted to know “how they could get rid of ingrained beliefs about their anxiety and feeling hopeless to change it.” After many years of trying to overcome anxiety and panic, it’s hard not to give up or remain hopeful about eliminating or managing it.

To get started with the “how,” imagine a justice scale. A justice scale has two sides and they hang equally until something is put on either side. Imagine that on one side of the scale are your negative beliefs and feelings about managing anxiety. On the other side is willingness to try regardless of your negative beliefs. This is the mindset that you need to adopt to move forward. It’s a balancing act where you acknowledge and work with both sides.

If you wait until you feel hopeful to seek out help then you may never get help! So the next step of the “how” is to take a leap of faith and ask for help. I have had many clients that start in therapy by telling me that they don’t believe that they could get better, but they hear my belief that they can. They accept that I have a course of treatment and they are willing to be open-minded even if they feel hopeless.

One of the great benefits of talking about your apprehensions is that now you and the therapist have something to work with. Your therapist should engage you in a deeper conversation about those apprehensions. The goal is that if you can talk about why you feel hopeless you can also talk about the part of you that still has hope.

Once that hopeful part appears you can then begin to work on the anxiety. Ultimately this is not an "either you have hope or you don’t" situation. It’s having both feelings of hope and hopelessness and managing those feelings while you begin the work of managing your anxiety.

- Julie


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10
I think the above comment hits the nail on the head. Anxiety based conditions are a result of an unwell brain. Talk therapy and positive thinking is only a small part of the treatment for this condition. As the above message states, you wouldn't tell anyone with acne or the flu or any other disease to just think positive. Although Im not disputing the effects of being positive.
By kgore  Aug 25, 2011
9
I think the above comment hits the nail on the head. Anxiety based conditions are a result of an unwell brain. Talk therapy and positive thinking is only a small part of the treatment for this condition. As the above message states, you wouldn't tell anyone with acne or the flu or any other disease to just think positive. Although Im not disputing the effects of being positive.
By kgore  Aug 25, 2011
8
I think the above comment hits the nail on the head. Anxiety based conditions are a result of an unwell brain. Talk therapy and positive thinking is only a small part of the treatment for this condition. As the above message states, you wouldn't tell anyone with acne or the flu or any other disease to just think positive. Although Im not disputing the effects of being positive.
By kgore  Aug 25, 2011
7
Sometimes I think being diagnosed as having a GAD, help be feel my emotions. Sometimes, all I can grasp is nothing will ever be resolved because I have a GAD! Does that make sense to anyone. I think humans have to have hope. I don't hear that Julie was saying we can control everything with our minds. I heard her offering a glimmer hope, we are human, we have to have hope. I have been in talk therapy for 4 years. I have recognized many things about myself, has my GAD gotten better? No, but I have hope that it will.
By shotzy54  Feb 21, 2011
6
Ive always had hope, but i get frustrated when i'm not makeing progress. I know eventually the change will come, its like stepping up a ladder, each step may take a different amount of time. I know i will get there tho
By rayfoof  Feb 21, 2011
5
bullies would be nervous. Justice isn't that the criminal paid for the crime but that the victim did. Why are there cops? just to arrest the last person at the crime scene~!
By dewounded  Feb 20, 2011
4
I saw a new Pdoc, two wks ago. I have had anxiety problems for as long as I can remember. From what I have learned about it, from a few different Therapists and * experts on the subject, I think what you have wrote about it is beneficial. The only question I have is: what if the majority of your thoughts are negative ( about yourself ) ? I ask this because my new Pdoc told me, after talking to me for an hr., that the underlying problem with me is low self-esteem. Which I developed @ a very young age. I was ridiculed..put down by authority figures in my life. My identity of who and what I am is not based on positive, loving affirmations. So my new Pdoc told me that I need to be in Talk Therapy. I have been in counseling before, though I have not yet defeated the negative thoughts about myself. I hope this time I am able to
By wmBarkLessCF  Feb 20, 2011
3
I saw a new Pdoc, two wks ago. I have had anxiety problems for as long as I can remember. From what I have learned about it, from a few different Therapists and * experts on the subject, I think what you have wrote about it is beneficial. The only question I have is: what if the majority of your thoughts are negative ( about yourself ) ? I ask this because my new Pdoc told me, after talking to me for an hr., that the underlying problem with me is low self-esteem. Which I developed @ a very young age. I was ridiculed..put down by authority figures in my life. My identity of who and what I am is not based on positive, loving affirmations. So my new Pdoc told me that I need to be in Talk Therapy. I have been in counseling before, though I have not yet defeated the negative thoughts about myself. I hope this time I am able to
By wmBarkLessCF  Feb 20, 2011
2
Anxiety disorders are a result of biological changes in one's brain.This is 2011, not 1950!
While I do understand that positive thinking may positively influence the outcome of any medical condition, I am wondering why Dr. Cohen didn't title the article,"Influence any medical condition with positive thinking"
People with hernias, broken bones, and acne aren't being told by the good doctor to think positively to improve their conditions. Can we stop this discrimination and antiquited attitude about brain disorders, please?
Daily Strength, shame on you.I'm extremely disappointed in you.
By kclady48  Feb 19, 2011
1
helow
By jaredmack504  Feb 19, 2011
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