My CBT Stress Control classes are almost complete - next steps?

[Sparkle1984]

For the last month or so I've been attending weekly Stress Control classes. In our area, this is a precursor to full-blown CBT. The classes are in a large group of about 50 people and they're not interactive - you just sit and listen to the instructors, so it's more like a presentation than a group therapy session. We are set weekly exercises and we're given booklets to read, so I have found it very useful.

The Stress Control course lasts 6 weeks and on Tuesday it will be my final session. At the end of the class I'll be given a form where I'll have to decide what I want to do next (eg join a group therapy or even ask for 1:1 therapy).

I'm trying to decide what would be best for me. A lot of my worries are existential anxiety (eg fear of ageing, death, philosophical things etc) , so I don't see how 1:1 CBT would help me, as there wouldn't be any way of "exposing" me to situations. Unless anyone here thinks it could help me? Another problem I do have is to do with assertiveness and social situations. So if there is a group about social anxiety, maybe I'd consider joining that.

Has anyone here found that CBT can work for existential anxiety, or is it better if I focus on social anxiety instead?

[thetube82]

i think CBT could help you Sparkle,

CBT does not always address 'obvious' behaviours like avoiding things (e.g. exposing the person to their fears), it also addresses other behaviours that we THINK are useful but are generally not, probably in your case this behaviour is 'overthinking' (e.g. worrying), it sounds like you spend a lot of time worrying about things that are unanswerable or inevitable such as getting older (it does not matter how much you worry about this, you are getting older) or worrying about dying (no matter how much you worry about it its going to happen) or asking deep philisophical questions which you will never get an answer.

People generally believe that worry is a produtive or positve behaviour (it gets you answers, it prepares you for things, it means you care, it means you consider things, etc.), or they think its bad or negative for them (worrying is bad for my health, if i didnt worry it means i dont care, if i worry too much i will go mad, etc.), when the actual fact is that generally worry is meaningless and does not harm you, therefore its a behaviour that is usless.

hope this makes sense,
thetube82