Panic & Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal part of being human. It helps us respond to danger, plan for uncertainty, and protect what we care about. But when anxiety becomes persistent, overwhelming, or disconnected from actual threat, it can limit your life rather than support it.

Anxiety disorders are marked by excessive fear, mental overactivity, and physical symptoms like heart racing, dizziness, and breathlessness. These experiences aren’t dangerous but they can feel that way.

Panic is an acute, intense bout of anxiety that is incredibly distressing.

How it might show up:

• Racing thoughts, restlessness, or constant alertness
• Difficulty concentrating, sleeping, or relaxing
• Physical tension, shallow breathing, chest tightness
• Avoidance of situations that might trigger symptoms
• Fear of fear itself: “What if I panic again?”
• Ongoing worry about health, relationships, or imagined future threats
• Panic attacks or feeling acutely distressed
• Specific anxiety, such as around health or social situations.

How CBT helps

CBT is one of the most effective treatments for anxiety. It works by interrupting the feedback loop between your thoughts, body, and behaviours. It helps you learn that anxiety is a signal, not a certainty, and that you can respond differently, without reinforcing the fear.

What treatment involves:

• Psychoeducation on anxiety, avoidance, and the fight-flight system

• Cognitive restructuring with examining catastrophic predictions and worry chains

• Exposure-based strategies to safely face feared situations or sensations

• Interoceptive exposure for panic, retraining your response to physical symptoms

• Behavioural experiments to test anxious assumptions in real time

• Self-monitoring tools to catch patterns and build awareness

The process is paced and collaborative, with clear rationale for each step. You won’t be forced to face things before you’re ready but you’ll learn how to stop anxiety from running the show.