If you're struggling with anxiety, panic disorder, and agoraphobia, this might sound familiar...you dread the uncertainty, unknowns, and a general lack of control. In fact, it can feel pretty awful! And when you're feeling this way, you might ask yourself "Does anxiety ever go away?" And not knowing if you'll ever heal your relationship with anxiety is like the ultimate unknown, right?
But here's the thing...the question "What if my anxiety never goes away?"... is fear! I mean, after all, anxiety is just that - fear! So let's talk about why this question might keep popping up for you. In this episode, I'm going to share some practical tips to help you gain a little freedom from this fear.
What if My Anxiety Never Goes Away?
You Don't Need to Know if You'll Recover
You might be thinking... Shannon, what?! But it's true, you really don't need to know if you'll recover. You don't need to know if your anxiety will go away! Because truthfully, you can't say with certainty that you will recover. But here's the good news... you don't need to know. However! One of the few things you do need to know is that recovery is necessary. You don't have to believe that it's possible, but you do have to believe that it's necessary! When you have some blind faith and believe that anxiety recovery is necessary, it's much easier to start taking some healthy action.
Why You Should Ditch Saying "My" Anxiety
If you're using the term "my" anxiety, I want to encourage you to change this. Because when you're saying this, you're giving anxiety a lot of power! I'm sure that when I was struggling I would've said this, too! But what we're really doing when we say "my anxiety" is we're letting anxiety define us. And friend, you are so much more than anxiety! Anxiety doesn't define your path, or what your future holds. So instead, try just simply calling it "anxiety". This will help remind you that anxiety isn't a part of you. It's just something you're struggling with right now!
Trying to Make Anxiety Go Away Isn't the Answer
So often, we’re convinced that we need to do more in order to recover. Whether it’s more exposure work, more thinking, more solving, you name it! You might be surprised to hear this, but the majority of anxiety recovery is about doing less. It’s about slowing down, being kind to yourself, and building a healthy relationship with anxiety. And creating this healthy relationship does require some healthy action. Healthy action can be hard because facing your fears is never easy. But it’s the type of “hard” that will lead you to lots of healing. It’s the “hard” that will lead to the things you want: peace, joy, and freedom!
You Might Be Keeping Yourself Stuck Because You Fear Recovery
And it makes sense...recovery is scary! But this fear shouldn't stop you from betting on yourself. What you are dealing with is hard. but recovery is hard, either because you're keeping yourself in your comfort zone, or because you're outside of it. And I want you to choose the hard that is going to lead you to the healing you're looking for!
Most importantly, I want you to simply let recovery be a possibility for you. You don't need to have all of the answers right now, and you don't need to know if your anxiety will go away. In fact, all you need to do is practice allowing recovery to become a possibility for you. And as you start to remove this limitation from yourself, you'll realize how strong and capable you really are!
So the next time you find yourself asking if your anxiety will go away, I want you to remember not to allow the fear to win. And I want you to remember that you don’t need certainty to heal from anxiety. Allow healing to become a possibility for you, and keep taking healthy action, my friend!
Don’t forget to listen to this week’s podcast episode for all of the goodness!