From time to time, I see posts from some poor soul who is apparently "treatment resistant." What does this mean?
Caveat: This post will focus on those individuals who have been given a clean bill of health by their medical professionals, maybe more than once! If their anxiety is a symptom of a physical illness (e.g. thyroid problem) it is likely that it will be treatable and then the sufferer can then tackle any residual anxiety that may still be lingering but please read on because the following can still help.
Treatment resistant means that the sufferer has tried every single type of medication (legal and otherwise), tried various types of therapies, tried different diets, and tried to find answers by trawling the internet from top to bottom.
Whatever it is that is causing them to feel the way they do is still a problem and hasn't been resolved. Medically they are fit and all avenues have been exhausted but cure is proving to be elusive. What else can they do to change the way they feel? They've tried everything so must be treatment resistant, right? Wrong.
What if the sufferer stops trying to get rid of those thoughts and feelings and does nothing? What if the sufferer had nothing else to lose and thinks F**k it, I'm going to live my life despite how I'm feeling? After all, they have tried everything else but without success so there is nothing else they can do.
During my recovery, I came across these gold nuggets that (with hindsight) turned out to be true and changed the way I perceived anxiety and led to my recovery. They all mean the same thing.
1. You wont get better until you stop trying to get better.
2. Anxiety is a paradox. The more you try to feel better, the less you recover. The less you do to try and feel better, the more you recover.
The common thread in all the above is that the sufferer gave up trying to feel better. It no longer mattered that they felt rubbish, they just carried on doing normal stuff. Anxiety was put in the corner. In other words, they accepted their lot and moved forward in ther lives.
The treatment that has not been considered is right under our noses and that is to do absolutely nothing to change those negative thoughts and feelings. To accept it all, lock stock and barrel. How can you get rid of a feeling if you are not prepared to feel it all willingly?
How do you learn to do nothing and accept things as they are? Pick up any publication that advocates acceptance to bring about permanent cure and keep practising until you recover. It will happen because acceptance allows the natural physiological healing process to desensitise nerves that have been battered into submission through constant stress and now screaming blue murder which manifests itself as chronic anxiety. Anxiety is perpetuated because the sufferer keeps on battering those nerves stressing about being stressed out!
Dr Weekes' publications was my choice. Her books gave me the knowlege and understanding required to overcome my disorder, helping to dispel alot of the stuff that up to that point left me bewildered and terrified.
Doing nothing works.
