One of the things I always try to instill in people I meet is to never give up!  I know how frustrating it can be to create recovery.  Often we can put in days, weeks and sometimes even months of effort without necessarily noticing any significant change.  This can frustrate us and often times cause us to stop putting in the effort and abandon any hope of creating change.

I had a member of my weekly support group who took my words of never give up and continued day after day of trying to create change.  This person would show up every week and tell me there was no difference in his suffering from anxiety disorders.  Each week I would reiterate the program, remind him of the things he can do each day.  He would assure me each week that he was doing all that he could with daily effort.  And despite his believing that nothing was happening, he never gave up.

One week he showed up to the support group and he looked more relaxed and seemed to be in a pretty good mood.  As always I would go around the table and let everyone have their chance of speaking, and when I got to this gentleman he gave me the surprise of my life; he was confronted with his major trigger for panic attacks and not only did he not panic, he did not feel any anxiety.  All I could reply was, “wow!”.

He explained the story in that he didn’t know he was going to be exposed to his trigger, and when he found out he did have an initial thought of fear (as always expected).  But he continued on and went through the experience of being exposed to his trigger.  He was extremely surprised himself; he never expected to have the response that he did.

But the lesson is this; never give up!

We typically judge our lives according to how we feel.  This is also true for how we judge our accomplishments.  Unfortunately, when it comes to anxiety disorder recovery, as long as we have “some” anxiety we will be prone to overlook any accomplishments at all.

The gentleman in the story above obviously had some change in his anxiety leading up to his wonderful experience, but he overlooked the positive change because he was still feeling some anxiety.

When we create recovery it doesn’t just magically disappear all at once.  It is a process of creating a new conditioned response to whatever our personal trigger is for our anxiety.  Even though there will be “breakthroughs” at times and likely periods of less anxiety over a period of time, we will still experience some anxiety until full recovery is created.  We shouldn’t allow these feelings of anxiety to overshadow everything in our life, especially our efforts at creating recovery.

As long as you are “trying” to create a recovery, then something positive is happening.  If you are practicing the tools on a daily basis; something positive is happening.  If you implemented any self-care measures; something positive is happening.  If you created a schedule and are trying to manage your time; something positive is happening.  If when you are exposed to your trigger situation you try to use the tools and change your conditioned response; then something positive is happening.

And if you do all of the above; something spectacular is coming your way!

When I first started my own recovery I experienced all the frustrations and self-doubt that everyone else experiences.  This is common and expected for everyone during recovery.  But when I finally committed to changing my life I used to tell myself the following;

“Time is going to pass whether I do something or I do nothing; what do I have to lose?”

The older I get and the more I understand life in general, the more that slogan resonates with me.  Time will pass no matter what we do.  If we sit on the couch all day, time passes.  If we are very productive throughout the day, time passes.

By putting in the effort today, we are planting seeds of change for tomorrow.

Our efforts today are not meant to necessarily make today any better; although it may.  The real benefit from effort today is to allow it to accumulate and create full recovery at some point in the future.

Remember that recovery requires us to be proactive in managing our thoughts.  We have to engage the process of recovery for it to take hold.

Never give up!  Persistence!