I've been in therapy for generalized anxiety for two years, and my therapist keeps emphasizing cognitive behavioral therapy as the gold standard. Yet I've read meta-analyses showing that exposure-based therapies and even some forms of psychodynamic therapy have comparable long-term outcomes. For my own panic attacks, CBT worksheets helped a bit, but the real breakthrough came when I started practicing mindfulness-based stress reduction, which wasn't even mentioned in my initial treatment plan. Does the therapy we promote most actually align with what the evidence says, or are we just sticking to familiar protocols that may not serve everyone equally? I'm not a researcher, just a patient who has wondered if my treatment could have been different if I'd pushed harder for alternatives.