SoulNPain
Anxiety is nasty, disruptive and
painful..................... Anyone posting here in this forum can tell you
that.
Accepting your anxiety disorder is perhaps the best
way to manage and ultimately eliminate anxiety from your life. Acceptance is
important because it allows you time to rest and it also offers a real
understanding of what anxiety symptoms can and cannot do to you. By accepting
fully all the things that anxiety can produce you will come to learn (and
accept) that although it can make you feel and think strangely it will not
actually hurt you.
One of the biggest worries that I always had was my
concern about the possibility of my anxiety growing into something worse, but
it didn’t and it won’t for you, either.
It is hard having an anxiety disorder because it can
dominate your life but that is precisely why you have to do something about it.
I wouldn’t expect you to be able to accept your anxiety fully within a week.
But with every day that you try to accept you will see a huge difference in the
frequency and severity of your anxiety attacks.
And so it all starts with baby steps. I am sure that
you are frustrated but you have to start somewhere and acceptance is a good
place to start.
I am sorry your current therapist is not a good fit for
you. It’s easy to find a counselor but
perhaps more difficult to know if you’ve found one who is right for you. There
are a number of questions you can ask that will help you recognize if you have
chosen the right counselor.
Do you feel safe and comfortable? Is it easy to make
small talk? Is the person down to earth and easy to relate to or does he or she
feel cold and emotionally removed? Is the counselor “stuck in her head,” or
overly emotional and empathic? Is the therapist a “know it all” or arrogant?
Sure, for many of us, going to a therapist for the first time is a bit anxiety
provoking, and it’s important to tease out our own “stuff” from the actual
counselor. But, if a counselor doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, that’s
okay; there’s absolutely no contract or rule requiring you to continue working
with any counselor. However, it’s important to check to see if there’s a part
of you avoiding therapy through a dislike or judgment of the therapist. If you
find yourself reacting negatively to every counselor you see, then the issue
could be yours and may warrant you sticking it out with a counselor in an
effort to work through your fears of beginning therapy.
Remember after you are able to accept that you have
an anxiety disorder the really hard work begins for you. I have lived with anxiety and depression for
31 years. There have been lots of good
times as well as the not so good times.
The good times far outweigh the bumps in the road and even the
occasional mountains that I had to climb.
Keep on talking with us here in the forum as we know where you are coming from and what you are going through.
Kindly,
Kitt