When I first started creating a recovery for myself, I never thought that I would be successful. My belief was that I was in such bad shape and past the point of no return. As if I was so “broken” that I could never be “fixed”.

What I learned in fact, is that how I was feeling was much worse than what was in reality. The reality was that even though I felt as if I could never recover, I was able to.

Anxiety leaves us feeling helpless and hopeless. We lose touch of reality and live in a world of “twisted, distorted fantasy” driven by anxiety. It is typically impossible for us to see what others can see in us.  And we believe that recovery is impossible to obtain.

When I first met my counselor she asked me if I could recover, and I answered “no”. But yet I had signed up for, paid for and began a workshop at the treatment center to create recovery. It was certainly a bit of a contradiction. But it does highlight the struggle we face; regardless of how we view our situation, we want to stop the suffering.  Somewhere within us we know we can recover; this is why we never stop searching for help.

The image of ourselves that is created by anxiety disorders is that we are in some way less of a person. Our self-value drops. We begin to believe that we do not deserve happiness. This image of ourselves promotes depression. Depression encourages anxiety. It is a terrible cycle that we get trapped in. I often called depression “the gateway for anxiety”.

If you were able to measure the distance between suffering with anxiety disorders and recovery, it would be much closer than you think. I myself felt that I was miles & miles away from recovery. That it would be impossible for me to ever reach it. Recovery is always within arms-reach.

I’ve given examples in previous posts of how someone with high levels of anxiety shifted their attention, and the anxiety vanished. I have experienced many times myself how just a slight change of my attention drastically affected my levels of anxiety.

Let me give you another example here;

There was a time when I was avoiding driving on highways. I would drive back-roads at all costs to avoid ever getting on a highway. One day I was preoccupied with a problem a friend was having, and I wanted to get to him as soon as possible. On my way to help him, I jumped right on the highway and drove with no anxiety at all. None. I knew what I was doing, but I did not have a care in the world about it.

Our anxiety continues only when we focus on it. Anxiety is only created and sustained by thoughts we have, and we believe these thoughts. If we had an anxious thought and didn’t believe it, we would never have anxiety. The problem is that once we have one anxious thought, we believe it and then we give it follow up thoughts. This is how our anxiety levels rise and continue.

If I couldn’t recover, or if I was so far away from recovery, then how could I have driven on that highway so easily that day? I was in complete avoidance the day before, and the avoidance returned the following day, but that one day in the middle there was no anxiety. The only logical explanation is that anxiety recover is closer than we believe it is.

Managing or eliminating anxiety at any one time is fairly easy; this I have experienced myself many times and also while working with my clients. The difficult part is doing it consistently and “at will” whenever needed. This is what makes the perception of recovery seem difficult or even impossible.

The use of tools & techniques is what is required to change our attention and our focus away from our anxiety. Allowing our fear to exist without us adding additional thoughts to it. Eventually creating a new conditioning and new response to our triggers for our anxiety disorders. Ultimately leading to recovery.

Be patient with the process. Be patient with yourself. Never give up. Persistence!