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Anticipatory anxiety is the what-if before the what-if. It causes you to project into the future in an attempt to prepare yourself for the next unwanted thought. You hope they do not come, and you are upset when they do. The result is that you keep oriented toward the future, pay very little attention to the present, and keep your body and mind sensitized.

When you deliberately invite these thoughts, you do not give them the power to waylay your life.

5A's:
1. attitude of acceptance
2. Assign accurate assessment
3. Active allowance of awareness and affect
4. Avoid avoidances - always attempt approach
5. Action: advance activities anyways

Fearful feelings go from "they are so uncomfortable that I find them intolerable" to "they are uncomfortable but tolerable." The goal is to feel that you can tolerate the anxiety better as opposed to eliminating it completely. It is your inability to tolerate unwanted intrusive thoughts that keeps them going. Getting over your fears is allowing yourself to experience them.

Inhibitory learning: New pathways are created in the brain that compete with the old, fearful response. A non fearful response becomes the default response with enough practice and you are no longer afraid.

Emotional processing: Any exposure that activates anxiety brings the false fear structures into play, and they change as a result of seeing that nothing dangerous (as opposed to frightening) really happens. Keep in contact with the triggering thoughts until your anxiety goes away or at least calms down. This allows your brain to get used to the thought and habituate to it.