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Why Not CBT For Anxiety?
(Or: When filling better paperwork doesn't solve the problem)

Has someone recommended CBT to you? Let me guess - they told you it was "evidence-based" and "gold standard"? (While anxiety adds "attend CBT" to your list of butler duties)

What CBT Promises (Versus what actually happens)

CBT promises to help you "challenge your thoughts" and "change your behaviours". Sounds brilliant, doesn't it? Like finally getting a proper employee contract for your job as your anxiety's butler, so finally you won't have to do all those things you don't want to do!

But what you actually end up with is: 

  • Demands for more detailed records of anxious thoughts

  • Instructions for better systems for cataloguing your worries

  • Extra paperwork about how you're "doing it wrong"

  • Orders for paperwork to prove your taking your anxiety butler role seriously. 

The Problem With CBT (Besides all the extra paperwork)

Traditional CBT assumes your thinking is "wrong" and needs correcting. It's like sending a butler to charm school when the real problem is that anxiety's a terrible employer. 

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You end up:

  • Documenting every thought in triplicate 

  • Creating flowcharts of your "cognitive distortions"

  • Writing essays about your "incorrect" thinking

  • Basically becoming anxiety's more efficient administrator
     

And the success rate for all this extra record-keeping? Let's look at the NHS's own figures from 2022-23: Even CBT, their golden child of therapy approaches, only helps about 48% of people recover. That means anxiety keeps its position as "Boss From Hell" for more than half its butler staff.

 

(And before you ask - yes, those are the actual numbers. Surprising how rarely they mention that in the CBT job advertisement, isn't it?)

What Works Instead (Because freedom beats flowcharts)

Rather than more paperwork, I offer:

Ready to Stop Filing Reports? (Because anxiety's paperwork never ends)

Let's start with a free 15 minute chat.
No homework required, no thought diaries needed.

Leave your CBT worksheets at home

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"The Only Thing Worse Than Serving Anxiety Is Having To Document Every Minute Of Your Service."

- Common sense (which CBT seems to have filed away somewhere) 

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