Email usThis technique is familiar to everyone. It's the most common advice we receive and the first we try ourselves when we start to think negatively. Why...because it can work when dealing with 'low grade' anxiety. Low grade anxiety is anything from 1 to 6 on the anxiety scale where 10 is a panic attack. With low grade anxiety you're more likely to believe the positive thoughts you create in order to combat negative ones. Up to 6 on the scale, it can be useful to reflect on the fact that there will always be someone worse off than you. You can convince yourself that the boss who yelled at you yesterday will probably be in a much better frame of mind today; that the party you spent months organising will go off without a hitch. The trouble with positive thinking is that as anxiety levels increase, it's harder to believe what you're saying to yourself. The more you don't believe it, the more frustrated/angry/anxious you become. Rather than being helpful, using the positive thinking technique once you're anxiety is in the upper ranges, can actually make you feel more anxious! However, it can play a useful role in a much broader approach involving the use of other cognitive techniques.
