When people come to me looking for help with anxiety, I’ll often tell them about an “Anxiety Equation” popularized by Christine Padesky. It’s a useful way to think about how we generate and maintain high levels of problematic anxiety, and leads to some helpful, practical ideas about how to reduce it. The equation comes from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and can easily be combined with “parts work” (Internal Family Systems Therapy or IFS), to great effect.
According to this equation the level or intensity of anxiety we feel depends on the relationship between two things. One is our estimation of the danger or threat or problem we are facing; the other is our estimation of our ability to cope with the difficulties that arise in our lives. It can look like this:
Anxiety = Estimation of severity and likelihood of danger / Estimation of coping resources
If I tend to overestimate the threat – imagining the worst, or catastrophizing – my anxiety is going to rise. If at the same time I underestimate my ability to cope with the challenges I’m facing, then my anxiety might go through the roof.
When people begin to understand their anxiety in these terms, they can often take a step back and look at their situation from a more realistic perspective. They can assess the problem at hand with a bit more objectivity, perhaps recognizing some extreme “worst-case-scenario” thinking, and begin to get this part of the equation more in check. They can also remember that they have all sorts of resources for dealing with problems (internal resources and external ones). As they do this their anxiety is likely to lessen and they can get on with addressing the issues they are facing.
This concept (from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT) can be very useful by itself. I have found that it is also helpful to dig deeper into this process. So, for example, one can come to understand and help the parts of us that are perpetually on guard for danger and tend to overestimate problems and threats; these parts are often rooted in past experience, often in the traumas of our childhoods. Working with modalities such as Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) it’s possible to lighten the burdens these parts carry and experience a deeper sense of healing and wholeness.
However you look at it, there’s hope for people who struggle with debilitating anxiety – or depression and other symptoms and behaviours that may be attempts to damp it down. Good counselling can help!