The clinical application of emotion research in generalized anxiety disorder: Some proposed procedures

Major psychological theories of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have begun to suggest that worry may function as avoidance of emotions. On the basis of these findings, a number of researchers have begun to develop techniques to address emotional, deficits in GAD. However, most techniques suggested to date have been from outside a cognitive-behavioral (CBT) model of treatment, making the integration of these techniques more difficult for CBT therapists. We propose a CBT model of addressing emotional avoidance through (a) learning to identify emotions and their possible evolutionary functions, (b) creating an emotion hierarchy to systematically address different emotions, (c) using imaginal exposure to increase tolerance to different emotions, and (d) eliminating behavioral avoidance of emotional experiences.