Understanding your anxiety · worksheet 06
Anxiety is an alarm that protects you. Sometimes it goes off too often or too loudly. To understand it better, look at one specific moment when it appeared.
Before you start
- What it is for: To understand how your anxiety works: what triggers it, what happens in your head and body, and what keeps it going.
- About 15 minutes. Think of one to three recent moments when you felt anxious.
- Anxiety often follows a cycle: something triggers it, thoughts appear, the body reacts, you do something… and that sometimes keeps it going.
- You don’t have to understand everything: writing down what you remember is enough.
Prefer paper? Download the PDF to print (with a page for psychologists).
What to do with your results
Look at the “What I did” and “Effect afterwards” columns: if what you do brings relief straight away but the anxiety comes back, you have found what keeps it going. That is often where the work begins.
If you find it hard
If you find it hard to separate thoughts and sensations, fill in what you can: the “Trigger” column is enough to start.
For psychologists
The PDF also includes a page for the psychologist: how to run the exercise in session, points to watch and scientific references. You are free to use it with your clients.
For psychologists: aim, audience and duration
Build a simple model of the person’s anxiety with them from a real episode, to show how thoughts, sensations and behaviours keep each other going.
Start of treatment for any anxiety disorder. Adults and adolescents. Duration: 20-30 min in session.
References
Clark, D. A. & Beck, A. T. (2010). Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice. Guilford.
Barlow, D. H., Sauer-Zavala, S., Farchione, T. J. et al. (2018). Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders: Therapist Guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
These worksheets do not replace therapy. If you are in distress or having suicidal thoughts, call your local emergency number (112 in Europe; 3114 in France, free, 24/7).
Free worksheet for non-commercial use: you may share it with credit to the author, without modifying it (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence).
