The Method to Get Rid of Anxiety

I am posting several blogs today because I want to get as much information out there as possible so that you can begin the process. It is always the toughest to start and I don't want to leave you hanging without a method.

If you are anything like me you have probably spent countless hours trying to find out

• Why you got anxiety 
• What caused your anxiety 
• What was going on in your life that you all of a sudden had to deal with anxiety

For me, I could not look back and find a single reason for my anxiety. I just did not understand where it came from. When people asked me what I was stressed out about I didn't have an answer because I was never stressed about anything. Even when I was anxious I did not have any external stress that was making me feel anxious. For many of us our anxiety causes us to be anxious.

We don't want to feel anxious anymore! We want to feel the way we did before. Happy! So we look toward other happy people and long to be like them again. But what I need you to do here is stop! Don't look for what caused your anxiety because that will be of no help to you. I give this example often, but if you fall down and break your leg, does it help you to remember what caused your leg to break? Will that help heal your leg and will it prevent your leg from becoming broken in the future?

I hope your answer to those questions is "no" because it really doesn't matter what caused your anxiety to begin with because chances are you're no longer anxious because of the stress in your life. You are probably stressed because of your anxiety. Furthermore, you may not be able to look back and locate a cause because you thought you were happy up until now. But what I need you to understand is that your body was put under constant stress to have gotten to this point and that is one of the things that Claire Weekes talks about in her book.

So let go of trying to find out why you got anxiety and ACCEPT that you have anxiety.

The process that helped me to get rid of my anxiety and stopped my panic attacks is the one Claire Weekes talks about in her book. If you don't have her book, don't worry! I am going tell you what it is in this post.

1) Face it
2) Accept it
3) Float Past it
4) Let Time Pass.

This is what Claire Weekes has talked about in her book. I am going to reword it and change things up because I am writing a post and she wrote a book so I need to cut to the chase. 

1) Face your problem. Understand that you have anxiety and you are no longer going to run away from it. If the symptoms come do not shy away from them. Do not fear them. Just face them. Do not fight back because you don't want to release anymore adrenalin into your already sensitized nerves. Claire Weekes talks about how there are two fears. The first fear is our symptoms. The first fear is there because our body has been sensitized from all the stress. When our body starts to release those symptoms it releases adrenalin into our body which causes our body activate the "fight or flight" response. Are symptoms are caused by the "fight or flight" response that our body activates unnecessarily. By becoming fearful of those symptoms we add more adrenalin and second fear is added and again that activates the fight or flight response, which exaggerates things even more and makes our symptoms even worse. We can call this a panic attack or anxiety. However, if you were to remain calm and face these symptoms as they come and look at them for what they are merely uncomfortable feelings they would eventually go away. When you are about to get a cold and your throat starts to hurt do you fear it? Hopefully, not. Would that keep you up at night? Most likely not. Then why worry about these symptoms?

2) Accept it: Often times, the hardest thing to do is accept something. You do not have to like anxiety or panic attacks to accept them. You merely must accept them for what they are. Stop trying to fight your fears. Instead accept your fears and slowly let them go. You've fought hard enough and for long enough. Stop fighting. Just accept your fears and your state. Once you accept your state and your fears you will be less fearful of them. Fighting back is sometimes not the best option. In her book, Claire Weekes talks about how we release more adrenalin and tire our body even further when we try to fight back from anxiety. Why go through all those efforts when all you have to do is accept your panic attacks? I know I am making it sound easy, when in reality it is very difficult to do. However, it is only difficult in the beginning. Claire Weekes constantly reminds the reader and I would like to remind you the same that at first you wanting to accept your anxiety is progress enough. That will be the start. With time it will come naturally, just don't give up your hope.

I am going to stop here and let you soak in all the information. I will talk about the next two methods in the next post. I hope that you will practice the first two methods so that you are ready to complete the next two when I post them at a later time. I hope this has helped you or given you hope in the very least. Understand that you are not alone. I am with you in this journey!

Abigail Monroe.