Beating Anxiety

 

How do I beat anxiety, the impossible sounding question we all want the answer to, but after two and a half decades I finally did it and here’s how.

Anxiety is Not a Personality Trait

Repeat after me, anxiety is not a personality trait. It is a mental illness that should be treated the same way a cold or a broken bone should be treated, except this illness wont go away on its own.

Support Network

A support network, one you can trust to talk about your anxiety too, is essential to beating it. You need to feel like you’re not alone and you need people around you who will love you and work with your anxiety. Having a particularly bad day and you get invited out? Well a good friend would understand when you say you can’t because you’re feeling like that.

Therapy

It took me until I was in my mid-twenties to try therapy and I feel like and idiot for waiting. Working on my anxiety alone was like trying to break a brick wall with my bare hands, but with therapy I feel like I have a hammer. It’s not an instant fix, but my battle became significantly shorter and less painful.

Medication

Medication was a very divisive topic for me. I was so scared of feeling less like “me” that I avoided it like the plague. Once I spoke with a therapist, however, I had the confidence to try it and my life turned around. It turned the small hammer therapy gave me into a sledgehammer. This isn’t for everyone and you should also work with a doctor and therapist to get the most benefit out of it.

Self Love and Patience 

It’s gonna take time, even with the things I’ve listed. The best way to speed things up is to keep track of the progress you’re making. Don’t discredit things, even small victories make a huge different over time.