Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the world. Anxiety stems from too much focus on the future, the potential outcomes, risks, or failures.
Those who struggle with anxiety disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders can find support in group therapy activities for anxiety. These types of activities can provide unique insight gathered from other participants who are going through similar struggles. It can also provide the social support that many individuals need to keep themselves grounded in the present and not be overwhelmed by the future.
Different Group Therapy Activities for Anxiety
There are many different group therapy activities for anxiety depending on the type of therapy used in your sessions and who is leading the group.
In some cases, group therapy is led by an instructor who gives everyone time to do the same activity but privately, and in other cases, that same instructor makes time to share things with the entire group so that everyone can contribute and learn from one another.
Finding Metaphors
Other group therapy activities for anxiety can include situations where you all work together to use things like images and metaphors that have a personal, positive impact on your life.
Why?
When first transitioning through feelings of anxiety, how you think about your situation can have a profound impact on how you feel. Think about how the choice of music in a room can change how everybody feels.
It is the same inside as well. As a group, individuals can share different images, or metaphors, things that help them to personally feel better when they are overwhelmed by the big picture, things that give them energy to keep going when anxiety feels too heavy to bear.
While what works best for you might not work for someone else, being able to openly share in a group activity can help spur creativity and give you the opportunity to find something that you can write down and keep with you when overwhelmed.
Planning
Other group therapy activities for anxiety have to do with preparation and planning. A big part of therapy is to help you have a plan of action when your anxiety gets high or when things change or go wrong.
Sometimes, this is easier to do when you have a group. Sometimes, the group activities are facilitated by an instructor where everyone spends 5 minutes to quietly problem solve for strategies they can use when anxiety is high by answering questions like:
- What actions should I take first?
- What strategies have worked for me in the past?
- How can I look at my situation differently?
Some part of the success associated with group therapy activities for anxiety centers on sharing. There are, to be fair, certain aspects of these types of exercises that you might prefer remain private, but there could be ways you have applied strategies in the past that were successful, and upon sharing with the group, could prove just as successful for someone else.
Celebration
Meeting milestones, achieving goals, and learning new things are deserving of recognition. Some group activities that work well for anxiety can include moments of reflection and reward.
In these moments, individuals can share with the group how they have managed some of their anxiety and the ways that they have improved over several weeks or months. Facilitators might ask everyone in the group to consider the following:
- What anxiety or challenges they have dealt with recently
- How they were successful in dealing with the anxiety
It’s important to take a few moments to reward achievements with things like a shared treat with everyone in the group, an activity that everyone enjoys, or even something that you do privately, like watching your favorite movie when you get home.
Getting Professional Treatment with Multi Concept Recovery
When you reach out to Multi Concept Recovery, our team will work with you to find the right type of individual and group therapy for your needs, whether that’s a generalized anxiety disorder, phobia, or combination of co-occurring anxiety and substance abuse.
We work with each of our clients to provide individualized mental health treatment plans that make the most out of therapy sessions applicable to individual circumstances. Group therapy is an essential part of these plans as it provides the ongoing social support and networking needed to avoid isolation and relapse.
There are many types of group therapy activities in which you will participate when you come to our treatment center, but we always work hard to ensure they are a proper fit for your needs, designed specifically for anxiety.
Contact our team today to learn more about our anxiety treatment.
