The Worry Trap: How to Free Yourself from Worry & Anxiety Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Chad Lejeune

From the Publisher

Chronic worry, a strong and persistent inability to tolerate uncertainty, is among the most common emotional problems. Unchecked, it can lead to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a common and more serious condition. Until recently, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was the preferred treatment for GAD and chronic worry. This approach stresses control over the irrational thoughts that lead to worry, by trying to refute and manage them.

But there's a problem with this approach. Try this simple exercise: Take thirty seconds, right here and now, and don't think about a recent worry. Think about anything and everything else, but don't think about that worry. How did you do? Like the rest of us, you probably could think of little else except the worry, no matter how hard you tried. This is the problem with controlling negative thoughts: Your attempts to hold on to and eliminate problematic thinking very often lead you to repeat and refresh the thoughts you're trying to dispel.

Enter the newest, most exciting development in psychotherapy in the last fifty years. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a revolutionary new approach to resolving a staggeringly wide range of psychological problems-including chronic worry and GAD. ACT paradoxically stresses letting go of attempts to corral, change, and cease negative thinking. Instead, it helps you accept your feeling as they occur without judgment. ACT techniques work to "de-fuse" problematic thoughts from the situations that trigger them. By choosing what you value and committing to how you want to live, you can bypass problems like worry entirely. ACT is safe, fast, and, clinical studies prove, very effective.

This book is the first for general readers to adapt ACT principles for chronic worry and GAD. It offers a step-by-step approach to learning and practicing ACT, from the first steps of acceptance to a lifetime of rich, values-guided living. The book's wry, witty, and engaging style-a virtual trademark of ACT-makes it an easy and even enjoyable approach for you to explore.

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Table of Contents