Exercise has helped lift a lot of anxiety but still occasionaly hav bad panic attacks, i've been offered cbt, does it work? what is the idea behind it

CBT works. : Cbt works for most anxiety disorders. One of the basic premises of cbt is called the abc (antecedent/automatic thought - behavior - consequence) i.e. An automatic thought in response to an external event leads to a certain behavior, which leads to certain emotional consequence, which leads to reinforcement of the original autmatic thought. Cbt aims to break this cycle at the a, b step.

Very Effective!: Cbt is a research supported, gold standard treatment for anxiety disorders in particular. It is a time-limited, collaborative, structured approach in which client learns the connection between thoughts, feelings, & behaviors. Thoughts are treated as hypotheses that can be "tested" for accuracy and exposure to feared objects and situations takes place following education & cognitive restructuring.