Lesson 13: Catastrophizing and Decatastrophizing
Lesson 13 explains catastrophizing in anxiety, what research shows about worst-case thinking, and the decatastrophizing questions that help you find a more realistic view.
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Procrastination and Anxiety: When Putting It Off Is a Way of Coping
Why anxious people procrastinate, how avoidance and emotion regulation drive the pattern, what the research shows, and practical steps for breaking the cycle.
Lesson 11: Worry vs Problem-Solving
Lesson 11 explains the difference between worry and problem-solving, what research shows about each, and a simple test to apply to your own thinking.
Lesson 10: How Avoidance Keeps Anxiety Going
Lesson 10 explains how avoidance maintains anxiety by preventing new learning, what research on avoidance and reinforcement shows, and how to recognize subtle forms.
Lesson 9: Fight or Flight — What It Is and What It Isn't
Lesson 9 explains the fight-or-flight response, its role in anxiety, common oversimplifications in popular accounts, and what the body is actually doing.
Lesson 8: The Anxiety Maintenance Cycle
Lesson 8 explains the anxiety maintenance cycle in CBT — how thoughts, emotions, body sensations and behaviors create a self-reinforcing loop.
Lesson 7: Safety Behaviors — Why Playing It Safe Can Backfire
Lesson 7 explains safety behaviors in anxiety, how they maintain fear by preventing disconfirmation, and what research shows about dropping them.
Lesson 6: Behavioral Experiments — Testing a Belief in Practice
Lesson 6 explains behavioral experiments in CBT, how to design one for an anxious prediction, and what the evidence says about their effectiveness.
Lesson 5: A Tour of Common Cognitive Distortions
Lesson 5 lists common cognitive distortions such as catastrophizing, mind-reading and black-and-white thinking, with examples and notes on the research evidence.
Lesson 4: Automatic Thoughts and How to Catch Them
Lesson 4 explains automatic thoughts in CBT, how they differ from deliberate thinking, what research says about them in anxiety, and how to start noticing them.