Will your anxiety ever get better? This is the million dollar question for many folks that struggle with anxiety. The answer to this question is yes but there is a caveat. The reason I say yes is because in my own experience I have been through terrible periods of intense anxiety and fear only to come out "normal" for a time. The caveat lies in our inability or more likely unwillingness to face our fears and challenge them squarely. How soon and to what degree you improve will depend on many factors. Primarily your attitude toward anxiety
Anxiety And Vice
"throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pain" - Democritus The word vice is rather strong when you think about it. It is defined as "a moral depravity or corruption". In my view and for our purposes a vice is something less and is generally something we should avoid or at least not over do. Anxiety sufferers have to deal with so much it's no wonder that many of us turn to vice for relief and why vice becomes a coping tool. We end up doing things that we ought not do or definitely over do because we are
The Anxiety Before The Anxiety Disorder
For many of us our anxiety disorders feel like they sprang up out of the blue as it were. But were there any signs that one was developing a long lasting and sometimes torturous sense of apprehension and negative physical feeling? Or was it always there and we now simply see things different? Although children can have anxiety disorders it seems that adults are the ones that exhibit physical and mental exacerbation with the condition. Do kids have a better handle on this or is it a case of ignorance being bliss? Looking back on my own
Reluctant Explorer: Anxiety And The Fear Of Travel
Traveling is high up on most people's to do list. It's almost a cliche to hear someone say something like "I'd like to X, Y, Z and travel someday". And it's obvious why - who wouldn't want to go see the world? Well you can count me as one of the few that doesn't. Now let me make clear that I would love to see the Pyramids at Giza, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Great Wall of China, so on and so forth. I would love to see these places in living color and not just in a book or film. However, like many people with anxiety, I have a fear of
Anxiety High Wire Act
At one point or another we have all seen the high wire act during a circus performance or on a t.v. show. The performer steps out onto the tightly stretched rope and slowly puts one foot in front of the other doing all they can to avoid a nasty spill. We all look at the performer and think "yea you're gonna fall" but of course they usually don't. The high wire reminds me a lot of what its like to have an anxiety disorder. Feeling off balance, woozy, lightheaded, faint are all sensations I'm sure a performer might feel while hoisted 50 feet
Are You Lazy Or Is Anxiety Slowing You Down?
One of the most unfortunate symptoms of an anxiety disorder is insomnia and to those that deal with it bless you all. Not being able to sleep is horrible but what if you have the opposite problem? Leave it to anxiety to be confused about how to make your life harder. It is true however that anxiety can put you in a near slumber and never ending state of sluggishness. Although feeling tired and slow are not startling (for the most part) they can put a damper on your daily routine. Want to go out? Not really. Want to exercise? Nope. Can you
How To Stave Off Pessimism
There are a lot of bad things associated with having an anxiety disorder but luckily for us one of them is not feeling panicked 24 hours a day. Don't get me wrong, there are times when you can feel continuous anxiety for a day, weeks or even months but by and large you do get something of a break from time to time. But what happens when the opposite is true and you've been feeling good for several weeks only to find that your anxiety is still there? These are the times when you have to learn how to stave off pessimism and the return of the
All By Yourself
Feeling alone in a room full of people really sucks. There is just no poetic way of summing up the feeling of loneliness that an anxiety disorder can produce in a person. I have literally been in a room with hundreds of people and have felt absolutely no connection to either them or the fun they seem to be having. Is this really surprising though? As an anxious "what ifer" many of our thoughts are aimed inward and can be negative and also repeat incessantly. When we get stuck in the quagmire that is anxious brooding all we can do is think
Find Out Why Having A Pet Can Help Your Anxiety
One of the things I always tout on this blog is making sure that people use multiple means of coping with their anxiety. This is by far the best way of ensuring that your anxiety disorder can be managed effectively. Normally people think of shrinks, drugs, or herbs as good remedies for an anxiety disorder and in fact these all have their merits. But there are other lesser talked about forms of therapy that are just as good. It is widely accepted that pets have a way of calming people - even to the point of lowering blood pressure. There have