Behavioral Experiments

The behavioral side of CBT is just as powerful. Behavioral experiments test whether your anxious predictions actually come true.

The process is straightforward: name a prediction ("If I speak up in the meeting, people will think I am incompetent"), rate your confidence 0-100%, then deliberately do the thing your anxiety avoids and record what happens.

Again and again, people find their anxious predictions rarely come true. The meeting goes fine. Nobody laughs. The feared outcome simply does not occur.

Over time this evidence adds up, and your brain quietly lowers its threat estimate.