What I’ve learned so far about anxiety might help you too.

I want to write this with the thought that maybe it will help many of those who are dealing with anxiety

Currently I am still in recovery but if I look at it objectively I am functioning almost as if I don't have anxiety

How did it all start? 2018 (it was a stressful time for me studies and a failed relationship) sounds childish exactly how I thought at the time, the problem is that I didn't understand that even things that seem everyday or "banal" affect us subconsciously, I was on the street and I felt a strong palpitation I couldn't resist the sensation and I ended up at the hospital where they did blood tests + ekg, everything perfectly normal, from there I developed an ocd + health anxiety related to my heart health (checked constant pulse) I must add that I did not understand and did not have the current knowledge of how the psyche works so I was looking for a palpable problem and that problem from my point of view had to be a medical one, I went through other tests that came out perfect + two more panic attacks at home, I realized after the 3rd one that everything starts from my brain not from a palpable problem necessarily, since then I started to discover and learn what is going on.

I have been through all the anxieties honestly but the most affected me health anxiety (fear of imminent death)

What I have learned (recently even) is that you have to learn to accept and ik you hear it everywhere and maybe it sounds clichéd and something you hear all the time … To accept means that the moment you feel or you are in the feeling of anxiety is to stop to counteract the feeling, to stop to find a specific reason for it often we tend to give it a high purpose and if we do that we put it on a pedestal and we both try to bring it down although we still put it there, it is a vicious circle, when you are face to face with anxiety try not to do anything ik it is really extremely difficult because the fear of the unknown intervenes (what happens if I don't intervene? What if it takes over? If X or Y is going to happen) well you'll soon find out that you are in control in the end and you only find that out after you accept and let it be and exist with you

What happens further is that initially you feel afraid that you risk losing control but with time you will notice that the feeling is harmless and has no control over you unless you give it over and over again importance and you keep putting it on the pedestal from which you try to dethrone it, what you don't know is that this will not be the only time because your brain has learned a toxic pattern of defending itself when it shouldn't so this will repeat itself many times, and you every time you will teach your brain NOT to react and not to activate the survival instinct when you do not need it, YOU will teach him on this occasion that "It's okay to feel bad in an area with many people, that it's okay if you faint in public, that it's ok if you get sick on the street”, that any situation he throws at you won't make you run away because every situation is fleeting as the feeling itself you'll find out is not and won't stay with you for more than a few hours/minutes

This is truly the next big thing—the fact that the sensation comes and goes, once you train your brain to stop being restless and to stop reacting irrationally in situations where you don’t want to run away and hide in a comfortable and safe place.

The next part is when you try to anticipate (Will I be anxious today? Maybe tomorrow? Maybe in situation X or Y? I’m breathing a bit heavily now—could my heart stop right this moment?). Well, find out that you don’t have absolute control, but that’s actually a good thing because you’re repeating the training from earlier. Over time, your brain learns when you’re actually triggering its survival instincts and when you’re not. In the future, it will reduce the supposed situations it wants to put you in. But at the same time, you’ll notice that it will also test you—it’s just like a faulty switch, turning on when you least expect it. So don’t think you’ve completely escaped it, and the main idea is that you don’t actually want to get rid of anxiety.

Anxiety is, after all, a normal sensation that we need, but we don’t need it all the time. That’s another important thing. Anxiety is actually very beneficial for the human body, but it should only come into play when we truly need it.

Finally, after boring you with information you probably hear everywhere, I just want to say that therapy has helped me a lot in parallel. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I’m pretty sure that we all manage anxiety differently, but personally, all these years, I’ve made it a priority to avoid any treatment involving benzos and to try to regulate myself with minimal help (therapy, psychologists, self-learning). And I believe it’s possible if you start with this mindset.

Don’t rush into the world of benzos right away—first, try to exhaust all non-medical options. And if you do end up needing them, try to alternate and not use anything as a crutch, because that way, you’re not teaching your brain anything. Oh and try not to turn tricks you find online into routines. good example: I don’t know if you’ve heard of the ice cube trick, but think about it—this means that in situations where you feel anxious, you’d need ice with you. Where are you going to find ice cubes on a plane or on the street? It’s just a toxic band-aid, fooling yourself. And that’s just one popular example I’ve tried—there are many others like it that only deceive you instead of reshaping how you react to triggers.

Finally, as someone with anxiety level 999 master, I also accept questions, and I’ll answer them to the best of my knowledge, of course.