Hating anxiety

[Familyloverer]

I want anxiety to leave me alone. I want to be strong again.

[Existing]

I'm afraid that means you have to confront it directly to come terms with it.You might think: "What?! Why would I do that to myself when thats exactly what I'm trying to get rid of, and get away from,and I certainly don't need more!"

But, unfortunately you cant just "will" most things away. Because if you could you would. But anxiety is not a disease that is attacking your body or mind from some external force, its one of our natural emotions, meaning it serves an important purpose. Its purpose is alert us to a threat, like a warning signal of something we need to pay attention to. And when you try to get away from, it keeps blaring at you even louder.

By avoiding it, we only make it worse. Therefore what you've been doing is probably trying not to think about it, or believing you could will it away if you try hard enough, and because that doesn't work you probably get even more anxious.

When you look something or someone in the eye that you've been trying to avoid, a lot of times we find that its not nearly as uncomfortable as we expected it to be, or even as much discomfort as we feel trying to avoid it. So, instead of trying to make it leave you alone, you might try some guided meditations on anxiety just to help you relax even slightly without avoidance.

You need to make friends with this by asking what its about, what it's telling you, when it tends to be the worst. What kind of situations do you notice it is associated with? Because you can begin to understand it deeper, and will probably start seeing where its attached to some faulty beliefs about things.

We tend to believe that our emotions lead to our thoughts, and therefore our thoughts must be true, and thats why we are anxious. But, in reality its our thoughts that often create our emotions, like "this road is dangerous because I got in an accident here, so I know something bad is going to happen on that road again, so I don't want to go there. But thats not true. Its possible, but not likely. So, cognitive behavioral therapy is all about learning how to recognize our thoughts, and pay attention to how they are are often based on,some assumption that we then realize isn't even true.

If you've been in therapy before, give it another shot with everything I've said in mind.

The reality is you can't just avoid it. But, by being willing to accept what you have to face head on with a therapist, you not only learn how not to avoid whats uncomfortable, but you will be amazed at how much more control you have over it when you know what you need to do. You have the power to get better, and you deserve to feel more than anxiety, and you have everything you need within you to do the work on your issues yourself. Just get a therapist to guide you through it so that you know the way.😊

(Ps. Tes, I'm aware of my ridiculously long comments, lol. I've always been a writer, but I used to be able to get to the point and end my thoughts. But its gotten to the point that I can't write a simple "thank you" in less than several pages😄😁 You have no idea how many things I write, and then save them as drafts that never get sent because they are obscenely long. In fact, 😅 its one of the things that causes me serious anxiety with every word I keep adding.😅 you are not alone. I meet with a new therapist next week.😘