| Constant anxiety, in contrast to situational anxiety, is characterized by the fact that there is cyclicality in it. That is, an anxious person is locked into the cycle of his anxiety. He walks in a circle and it is not so easy, almost impossible to get out of the cycle of anxiety. The essence of such an anxiety loop is precisely the fact that each element of the anxiety cycle is a consequence of the previous one and at the same time the cause of the next.Constant anxiety: try to break the cycle of anxietyRemember the children’s game “Shackles”? Participants are tied with shackles, stand in a chain in a circle, and the leader must break out of the circle, breaking the shackles.If you try to break the circle at the point of adhesion, it is almost impossible, but if you break the circle, interacting with a weak element and act nontrivially (paradoxically), for example, to crawl between your legs or perform a deceptive trick, then you can break free from several attempts.Strategic therapists follow the same principle. They try with paradoxical methods, using indirect suggestion and giving “strange” tasks to influence individual elements of the anxiety cycle – to weaken and even break the circle of panic. At the level of bodily sensations and emotions, they remove tension by increasing it and offering the experience and techniques of traditional medicine. At the level of breathing, when the client cannot inhale, it is suggested to exhale sharply or to hold the breath as much as possible.At the level of behavior, the anxious person is confronted with situations of avoidance, imperceptibly shifting consciousness and distracting attention.At the level of thinking, they change the nature of thoughts, turning the obsession of disturbing thoughts into entertainment and an object for observation.At the hormonal level , adrenaline is released using relaxation techniques and any “sweat and relax” techniques. At the level of fears, they confront a person with his fear, make him look fear in the face. In addition, the person is trained to cope with anxiety using other resources and techniques. They teach to rely on themselves. They instill faith and hope for complete relief from anxiety. How to get out of the anxiety loop without breaking the panic loop?But there is also an alternative way to get out of the cycle of anxiety without breaking the cycle. To do this, in the game “Shackles” the participant would have to learn to fly. In the case of anxiety, you just need to create, first in your imagination, and then in practice, an alternative reality and, having accumulated quantitatively energy, make a qualitative (quantum?) Leap into it.Sounds mysterious? It should be so. However, in my sessions, it really happens. Everything is different there. Simple and effective.The goal of the session is set differently, and the work proceeds differently. This, by the way, does not negate the work of breaking the anxiety cycle and weakening its main points, described above. |