AtmoLav's Anxiety Recovery Theory Part One

Welcome to my anxiety recovery theory. This will be presented in several parts.

What I'm going to tell you is not backed up by science or anything else. It's based on my own experiences of this disorder and how to recover from it. I have no medical background and a lot of what I'm going to say is plucked out of my own experiences, combined with input from several other mainstream theories.

You're reading this because anxiety is taking over. And you want it to stop. That's the name of my blog, so you never know, you might learn something. Anxiety took over in my life and now it doesn't. Now I'm in control. It can be done.

The first thing I'm going to tell you is quite simple.

There's a chance that nothing that you read or hear is true. Just because it's written down and published or someone has said it doesn't make it true.

This is an important point, and of course applies to my theory of anxiety recovery. Just because I'm saying it doesn't make it true. But that's not to say it isn't. The point I'm getting at here is that science doesn't have all the answers. You have to find your own path. This will become key as we progress.

Lesson One: STOP
The first, most important thing you can do right now is STOP. You're probably suffering some physical discomfort. Anxiety does that. I'm not going to tell you what these "symptoms" are - these are available elsewhere.

You're probably finding yourself thinking

"I wasn't anxious before this physical discomfort started", or
"If only I could get rid of this physical discomfort I'd stop feeling anxious".

These are typical responses, but they're wrong. You're working backwards. What you need to be saying is:

"If only I could get rid of this anxiety I'd stop being in physical discomfort".

So STOP searching for relief from the physical symptoms. Nothing will work. Painkillers won't work. Nothing will.

On this topic: you are NOT dieing. You are NOT "ill". You do NOT have a mental illness or mental problems. You're experiencing something very normal, a response that is coded into EVERY cell in your body.

If your physical discomfort moves, or particularly if it goes away when you're not concentrating on it, you can be 100% certain it's anxiety-related, especially if it's accompanied by widescale worrying and/or panic.

Here's a game for you. Next time you are feeling scared or even angry because you're in physical discomfort, DON'T take a painkiller. Instead, lie down somewhere quiet, close your eyes and relax your body. Now, concentrate on the pain or discomfort. Try and isolate it. Where is it coming from? What is it? Look, listen and feel. It's not unusual to panic when you first do this. Don't let that stop you. You'll notice two things:

1) The pain didn't get worse, did it?
2) When you really concentrate on it, you realised it's not that bad really is it?

If you had a broken leg, you'd be in pain but you'd live with it, wouldn't you.

Well that's what I want you to do for now. Accept that you are in physical discomfort, know what it is and get on with it.

This takes time to do, but if you keep thinking this way, you'll gradually start to feel relief. You'll have moments when you're pain free, and you'll have moments when you're not.

STOP fighting the pain or discomfort. STOP hating it. STOP being scared of it. STOP trying to diagnose it. Get to know it, accept it and carry on.

Good luck. We'll speak soon.