anxiety help: Does anybody know of any cognitive behavioral therapy techniques that I could try to help my panic attacks/anxiety? - Help.com

Linden Method. It’s pretty simple and you don’t need to spend the bucks on it.

When you’re feeling anxious, welcome the anxiety. Challenge it to take over and overwhelm you. Shout “BRING IT ON!” if you have to. Disable its power. I did that to confront my feelings of grief after my wife died… when I stopped running from the feelings and challenging them to knock me down, I got past the overwhelming feelings and moved on. The Linden method says the best way to do this is to DISTRACT yourself. When you feel anxious, play loud music, sing along, DO something that requires concentration. Always remind yourself that anxiety is ONLY A FEELING and cannot hurt you. Tell yourself it’s just a feeling.

Anxiety only has power when it is reinforced. You reinforce anxiety when you back away from something that makes you anxious… you feel relief and your brain learns that backing away is the right thing to do. You actually train your brain to disable you with anxiety attacks!

Face what makes you anxious by using some tools. Social anxiety? Get a book like How to start conversations and make friends. Take baby steps. Smile at people. Force yourself. Make chitchat. Soon you learn that they are as anxious as you are but YOU can set them at ease with some easy techniques. Books help when they allow you to put together some simple tools you can remember and use over and over.

Stay out of the cave. When you feel MOST like retreating, push ahead. On your worst days, push ahead. You will retrain your brain that when you are concerned about something, you can DO something about it and feel relieved. You don’t have to run away to feel the relief. Don’t get trapped inside your head and think things over and over. Don’t research anxiety and reinforce it. Distract yourself, challenge your emotions to knock you over then laugh at them when they can’t, your emotions are a bully, take baby steps to work on your issues… small steps lead to big results. If you focus on how big a problem is, you disable yourself.

Another technique is to picture yourself as a little kid when you feel anxious and picture yourself hugging the kid and saying, “It’s going to be ok buddy!”

Yes, I’m speaking from experience. I had mild agoraphobia for a few years and social phobia most of my life. No more.