I Battle Depression and Anxiety
Tips on handling anxiety on your own without medication?
31-35, F
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GlassDog · 46-50, M
I see both anxiety and depression as a slippery slope. The more I avoided the things I didn't feel able to do, the harder they became the next time around. Although it's counterintuitive, you have to do the difficult things rather than avoid them. Or at least attempt to. It doesn't matter if you don't succeed, as long as you keep attempting.
The difficult things are like exercise, but for the mind. The more you do them, the fitter you get. For a period of three years, my anxiety manifested itself, amongst other things, as a fear of heights. The quickest walk home from work takes me over a long road bridge about seventy-five feet above the roads below. I used to walk across it but then I started to avoid it because of anxiety attacks while on the bridge. For nearly three years, I didn't cross it. I hated that I couldn't cross it. But I pushed on, crossing easier bridges. Building it up. I walked across it a year ago and it felt so good. I walk across that thing every time I can now, keeping my resistance to anxiety topped up.
I'm convinced this is the right approach. Whether it's social anxiety, fear of heights, agoraphobia, anything. It doesn't matter how quickly you improve, just that you're taking it in the right direction and pushing yourself a little further each time.
The difficult things are like exercise, but for the mind. The more you do them, the fitter you get. For a period of three years, my anxiety manifested itself, amongst other things, as a fear of heights. The quickest walk home from work takes me over a long road bridge about seventy-five feet above the roads below. I used to walk across it but then I started to avoid it because of anxiety attacks while on the bridge. For nearly three years, I didn't cross it. I hated that I couldn't cross it. But I pushed on, crossing easier bridges. Building it up. I walked across it a year ago and it felt so good. I walk across that thing every time I can now, keeping my resistance to anxiety topped up.
I'm convinced this is the right approach. Whether it's social anxiety, fear of heights, agoraphobia, anything. It doesn't matter how quickly you improve, just that you're taking it in the right direction and pushing yourself a little further each time.
