Learning to control your Anxious symptoms and low mood, mean that you can return to normal function and then concentrate on maintaining your remission from your symptoms.
Recovering your quality and zest for life can be a wonderful thing after the immense personal suffering that these symptoms can cause you in the acute stage. There is nothing better than to reach the point where you feel this elation and what is even more amazing is that each and every one of you despite any emotional support that you have received along the way will still have done this for yourself. However much help you seek, ultimately it is you and you alone that can reach this stage.
Having suffered for many years myself I still believe that anyone is able to regain their quality of life once again. I do not believe that there is anyone, no matter how bad they believe themselves to be that is unable to achieve this.
My own journey was twelve years duration, where I started with a Panic attack and then progressed to Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Agoraphobia and also severe Clinical Depression. At my lowest point I was suicidal and isolated from everyone. I had no confidence my hope and resilience had been tested to the limit and I struggled to function at all.
When I look at myself now, I see a completely different person. All the unhelpful panic has been removed from my life, I love spending time with friends and family, I run my own business, enjoy travelling and having new experiences, have hobbies and holidays and love life. On top of that I am following my passion to help others like me by creating and maintaining “It’s just a feeling”
If I could have seen how things would end up, I would never have suffered so much but most importantly I would have realised just how little Panic, Anxiety and Depression can actually take away from you. With them it’s all about sadness and fear, but really they never stopped me doing anything, I did.
In my darkest days, my ability to carry on was sometimes tested to the limit, but looking back I never did lose my hope. I guess I was just never prepared to accept that this always be able to completely strip me of my quality of life.
Anxiety and Depression can be great teachers, they force you to have courage that you never realised that you had, they force you to look at yourself and the person that you are. I would not change anything that has happened to me now as it has made me the person I am today and lots of good came from it. I am calmer, more patient, much more self aware and more independent and brave than I have ever been.
There will come a time in life where everyone will stand a test through a very hard time, be that Anxiety, Physical illness, bereavement, abuse or trauma. I learned that it is largely up to the individual the choices that they make and how they deal with things and move on.
To move on from Anxiety or Depression you have to be prepared to face them, feeling your feelings and allowing time for them to process and you to heal.
A big part of an Anxiety Disorder is avoidance. That is what keeps the fear cycle alive, and the thing is we don’t just avoid places, people and situations, we are avoiding our own feelings and ultimately ourselves. It’s almost as though for some reason we just do not accept or like ourselves.
Getting better is not just about re visiting places or situations that you are avoiding, it’s also about not avoiding yourself and your own feelings. Until you realise that you have to be prepared to face these feelings and feel this fear, it would be impossible to achieve remission from them. It is about setting remission of symptoms as your main goal and acting in such a way as well as making the right choices along the way to get there.
To love yourself, means to listen to yourself and to stop the cycle of destroying yourself with negative habits and avoidance that will only prolong pain. Accept who you are.
You can never change what has happened to you as every part of your life good or bad is stored in your brain, so the key to achieving remission from your symptoms has to be about accepting that Anxiety is there, and working with it. You need to continue to live your life as though Anxiety was not there and allow it to do its thing around you.
You are who you are and accepting yourself warts and all is very important.
Remission of symptoms feels amazing, it just happens when you act and understand in the right way how to move forward. It comes from seeing your anxiety through different eyes to what you do now and living regardless of it. Do not allow it to take things away from you, you are the master of you and you are choosing to focus on your anxiety, which is keeping it alive.