Dealing With Anxiety

anxiety-both

 

Ever since I was about ten years old, I’ve dealt with some pretty severe anxiety issues. There have been times in my life when it has drastically altered what I do or how I do things. At some points, even going to the grocery store causeda nice little panic attack and an immediate desire to escape back home.

Over the years I’ve made a great deal of progress in dealing with it and wading through the irrational fears and presumed dangers. Sometimes we worry so much about what bad things could happen in life that we quite living. We don’t even permit the good things a chance to happen.

I think another aspect is that we often get so caught up in our own little troubles, concerns, and baggage, that we assume others could never understand or somehow are free from their own trials. In talking with others about my anxiety, I’ve found so many of you that also suffer this and that and fear how others will perceive you.

Its as if we come to believe that we are the only ones with something broken. We are somehow unique in our struggles. I’ve come to learn that we all have something to fix. Some way to improve. For some fixes it will be a week or two, but others will take a lifetime. The good news is that we don’t have to do it alone. You’re never the first to have your problem, nor will you be the last. There’s always help to be had and help to be given.

I just want to say thank you to all those who have helped and supported me. You’ve made the path a lot easier and progress (though slow) more sure. I hope I can offer the same help back. I’m trying to be more alert to those around. We’ve all got our set of trials in life and it helps to share the load. Reach out a hand. Trade a smile. Fix your brother’s leg while he fixes your arm.

Thanks!

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The picture here is an exercise my new therapist asked me to do. He told me to try and personify my anxiety in a visual way. I’m assuming its a way to help disassociate the anxiety and me. A means of separation or a new perspective to view it in. I imagined my anxiety as two separate beasts, as it seems to take different forms in different situations. There is the scared and the scary. The spastic, hyper alert, panicking kangaroo rat anxiety and the scary, griping, fear-inducing centipede anxiety, haha.

Hopefully sharing about myself may help some of you out there who are also going through something tough right now. Or even for those who also have life long struggles. Keep moving forward.