Re:How Anxiety Warps Your Perception
by ksenzee on Thursday September 29, 2016 @02:50PM
(#12607832)
Treatments other than mindfulness training are not simply a "bandaid." CBT is the gold standard, for example, and countless thousands of people have found it alleviates their anxiety without their ever even learning what "existential suffering" means. Mindfulness is certainly one of the major tools in the anxiety toolbox, but it is neither the only nor - arguably - even the best tool available. This is especially true given that anxiety is not a single problem with a single cause.
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Existential suffering underlies all anxieties. CBT, at best, gets to certain levels of deep seated programming, but does not go to the root cause. Alleviating anxiety is not the same as a cure. Being functional is not the same as a cure.
CBT may be considered the gold standard in the mainstream, but it will not always be like that.
This is certainly an interesting idea, but is there a body of research behind it? (How does one prove that anxiety is caused by "existential suffering" anyway?) What is the amount and quality of that research? Even if CBT is flawed it has an established track record of clinical success so I still think it should be regarded as a "tool in the box."