Mental Health Guides

When anxiety feels overwhelming, it can be hard to understand what is actually happening or where to start. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers a simple, practical framework for understanding anxiety and changing how it impacts daily life. One of the most helpful tools used in CBT is a basic diagram  that works for both adults and children. It is simple, but very powerful. Here is how it works and why it helps. Every Emotion Has Three Parts CBT begins with a core idea:

Exposure and Response Prevention, often called ERP, does more than help anxiety improve over time. It changes how the brain responds to fear. To understand this, it helps to look at the anxiety cycle and how ERP interrupts it. The Old Anxiety Pattern Let’s use contamination OCD as an example. Imagine touching a doorknob. Anxiety rises immediately because the brain has learned, inaccurately, that touching a doorknob is dangerous. Once anxiety appears, the brain pushes for reli

Exposure therapy can sound intimidating when anxiety already feels overwhelming. Many clients and caregivers worry ERP means being pushed too far too fast. Those fears are common and they make a lot of sense. When anxiety is already taking up so much space, the idea of facing fears can feel like too much. Misunderstandings about ERP often make it seem harsher than it really is. ERP is actually designed to be structured supportive and collaborative. It is not about forcing fe