Combination of Thought Stopping Therapy and Progressive Muscle Relaxation to Reduce Anxiety

Clients with physical illness tend to experience anxiety and the condition can worsen their physical condition. In general hospital, nursing intervention still, focuses on the physical problems and gives less attention to the psychological problems. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of thought stopping therapy and progressive muscle relaxation therapy for clients with anxiety. The method is pre-post experimental. A total of 36 anxiety adult clients with physical illness participated in this study. Then they were given intervention ( thought stopping therapy and progressive muscle relaxation) for 3-4 times in a meeting. The analysis was conducted based on the signs and symptoms of anxiety clients before and after the nursing intervention. The results of nursing intervention showed a decrease in signs and symptoms of anxiety on all the responses which include cognitive, affective, physiological, behavioral and social responses. The most declining response is the physiological response. This intervention is recommended to overcome anxiety in clients.