Thrive Counseling

It is logical to want things to be one way or another and it is logical that it is difficult to accept reality as it is. But it is necessary to take off the glasses through which we filter what we see. It is necessary to begin to see reality without a filter and take charge of what we are seeing, experiencing or feeling without focusing on how much we want it to be different.

An anxiety disorder is when the alarm is bigger than the fire. In some cases, clients are dealing with a real fire. So the anxiety, for the most part, is warranted if not useful.
Still these questions may still be useful.
• What is the risk? Am I maximizing it, exaggerating it?
• What are my resources? Am I minimizing my ability to prevent or deal with the consequences of the risk?
• Am I afraid of the anxiety itself? How can I practice accepting and using anxiety constructively?

We can distinguish between clean and dirty anxiety. Clean anxiety is anxiety about a realistic threat. We use it to garner resources, to problem solve, to weigh the costs and benefits of the options before us. Dirty anxiety is anxiety about anxiety. Dr. Beck stated that an anxiety disorder is when the client is more afraid of the alarm than of the fire, and all their efforts are spent in putting out the alarm.