Stop fighting your anxiety, it only makes things worse. Instead, surrender to it, accept it for the time being: do the exact opposite of what you've been doing until now. Ask yourself, did fighting make you feel better? Did it cure you of panicky feelings, palpitations, upset stomach, feelings of doom and all the other symptoms in the Google guide to anxiety disorder? On the contrary, all that extra adrenaline your body released as a result of the extra stress and strain of fighting only made your nervous system more sensitised still.
If you're digging yourself into a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. So stop fighting - stop checking your pulse every 5 minutes, stop testing to see if you can walk round the store without feeling dizzy, stop checking that ache or pain to see if it's gone away yet. Instead learn to co-exist with all the fake symptoms, accept them without reservation and acknowledge they're going to be around for some time yet - but you've made important changes in how you deal with them that eventually and inevitably you will be free at last, free at last, free at last.
"I find that some patients complain , 'I have accepted the churning in my stomach but it is still there. So what am I to do now?' How could they have accepted it if they still complain about it?
"I try to make them understand that they must be prepared to let their stomachs churn...only by so doing would they be truly accepting. In this way, and only in this way, would they reach the stage when it would matter no longer whether their stomachs churned or not. Then freed from the stimulous of tension and anxiety, their adrenalin-releasing nerves would gradually calm down and the churning would automatically lessen and finally cease."
Doctor Claire Weekes, 'Self help for your nerves', 23rd. printing, 1986.
Written by
Jeff1943
Written by
Jeff1943
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Hi there great post I sopose acceptance is the key a bit like grief we learn to live with it we never really get over loosing a loved one but the grief gets easier distraction is certainly the key not dwelling or foccusing on it I'm happy and less anxious when I'm busy I hate early morning wake ups that's when I start over thinking 💛✨🌻
Like grief acceptance when someone dies I kinda feel this way about anxiety like grief we have to live with it it never goes completely my mam described grief as hard work but 2o years on since my step dad died she plods on 💛✨🌻
Oh how timely this came for me as I was struggling so much with trying to neutralise thoughts and feelings. You are such a positive for me, for us all Jeff, thank you from the depths of a very weary, but still trying so hard, heart x
I cannot totally accept this principle. I work 7 days a week and have had pain and anxiety from time to time at work. I work thru my pain because I need to survive and keep a roof over my head. I take Excedrin - U.S. for migraine like headaches and then antacids because Excedrin hurts my stomach. I intellectually understand what is going on and my anxiety fortunately can lessen. However even with acceptance it never totally goes away for me and I also have PTSD as well being the daughter of a child Holocaust survivor and my granny had survivor’s guilt which has impacted me greatly. Yes I live with it but it still can be painful.
🙏🏻Thank you Jeff. Needed this today. Meditated on it and saw ur post. Bless ur heart. The late Dr Weekes was correct. Live with the discomfort. Thx again for this.
Self help for your nerves and essential help for your nerves, both books by Dr Claire Weekes are recommended for anyone suffering with Anxiety and to overcome stress and fear.
Acceptance and surrender. So difficult for us type A people to do, and yet so powerful. Accepting all that we are, all that we feel, our past, our inclinations, our lives as they are; surrendering to what is- transformative!
For the benefit of newbies, when we say Acceptance it is only meant to be temporary acceptance so through the act of acceptance we stop constantly sensitising our nervous system. Once that is achieved there are no more symptoms to temporarily accept. Claire Weekes' Acceptance doesn't mean putting up with the symptoms for the rest of your life.
Easier said than done. I do accept my difficulties but it doesn't mean they go away, if you are in constant pain i cant see accepting it makes it any easier.
If the pain is physical in cause then it will not be dispersed by desensitising the nervous system. If the pain is a symptom of anxiety disorder then it will cease once the nervous system becomes desensitised through Acceptance (which is certainly much easier said than done as you rightly say).
I'm sorry to hear you are in constant pain. I guess you've tried getting help from the specialised Pain Clinic at most local holidays.
Thank you for this helpful post Jeff. Dr. Claire Weekes was a brilliant Doctor and cured many people. I understand she suffered panic attacks when she was a child, so would know what we all go through. I think she changed the whole medical profession regarding nervous illness. Reading this again today really helped me as l am having a bad time right now. We do need reminding that we have to accept and let time pass. Wishing you well.
Do read Claire Weekes' book 'Self help for your nerves' also published under the title 'Hope and help for your nerves' in the U.S. to understand exactly what she means by Acceptance and how to achieve it as 'acceptance' can mean different things to different people.'Face. Accept. Float. Let time pass'.
I wish you every success in your quest to disperse anxiety and the depression that come out of anxiety.
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xx
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