I got a message this week; “having suffered with anxiety for years on and off and even taken meds, can I ever get rid of it?”.
It’s stuck in my head a bit this message.
I don’t like the message that you can get rid of anxiety or never having anxiety.
Anxiety is present when you need to be on high alert for things. It comes in when things are uncertain. When things feel threatening. It’s a normal reaction at times.
Such as –
If you were walking down a street at night and it felt threatening – it would be unusual not to be anxious or on high alert.
Or if your child became seriously ill – it would be VERY weird to be ‘chilled and relaxed’ especially when you first realised.
Or if you had a big project at work that was important to you – imagine how successful you’d be if you didn’t give a shit.
I don’t think to ever think you can get ‘rid of it’ is helpful or to feel like that.
But here’s what I do believe.
I believe that YOU/ANYONE can skill yourselves to be able to manage any scenario such as above.
Such as
- Dark street – recognising that you felt threatened, working on the evidence that rationalises how dangerous this actually is, being able to have insight to why you’re reacting that way and being able to regulate your nervous system when you found safety so that anxiety left your system
- Ill child – understanding why anxiety is present, deciding how you’d like to be able to deal with the situation, work with your mindset to know that you can cope, making proper plans for all scenarios and increasing how you’re looking after yourself (a well resourced mum can manage anything) and moving from being stuck in thinking into action meaning the anxiety goes
- Big project – identifying what you’re worried about, utilising the evidence of how you’ve manage this, working on emotional regulation, visualisation of how you’d like it to go, stepping into the best version of yourself
So you see – I don’t think you can get rid of anxiety.
What you can do is quickly learn to manage it. Check out my free resources library to get you started.
Much love, Tricia xxx
