Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety: A CBT Guide for Moving Past Chronic Indecisiveness, Avoidance, and Catastrophic Thinking (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781684039227)

Get ahead of your anticipatory anxiety, and start living with flexibility and peace of mind.

Do you automatically assume the worst-case-scenario when faced with difficulty? Do you stress about situations that haven't happened yet, or find yourself anticipating disaster around every corner? Does the prospect of making a decision leave you feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed? From subtle avoidance behaviors to the most nightmarish terrors, anticipatory anxiety is the engine that drives it all. Understanding how this hidden enemy tricks you, and, most importantly, how to overcome it, will liberate you to live a more flexible and joyful life.

In Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety, two anxiety experts team up to teach you how to manage your overactive imagination, limit future-based thinking, face your fears, make decisions, and live with more freedom and joy. This must-have guide is grounded in the authors' innovative and easy-to-remember DANCE model:

• Discern your anticipatory anxiety
• Accept doubts and discomfort
• No struggling or avoiding
• Commit to proceed
• Embrace the present as it is, so you can get on with your life

Your relationship with your worries and imagination will shift, so that you can focus on what is genuinely important.

It's time to stop worrying about what might happen, start facing your fears, rein in your self-defeating imagination, and live fully in the moment. Get this book and discover the motivation and skills needed to take charge of your anticipatory anxiety.

About the Author

Sally M. Winston, PsyD, is founder and codirector the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland in Towson, MD. She is a founding clinical fellow of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), winner of the inaugural ADAA Jerilyn Ross Award, and was previously awarded the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy's book award. She has over forty years of clinical practice and training specializing in anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She is coauthor, with Martin Seif, of What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders and Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts.

Martin N. Seif, PhD, is cofounder of the ADAA, and was a member of its board of directors for fourteen years. Seif was associate director of The Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Center at White Plains Hospital, a faculty member of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and is board certified in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He maintains a private practice in New York, NY; and Greenwich, CT. He is coauthor, with Sally Winston, of What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders and Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts.