How To Stop Anxiety Step 6

Accepting Setbacks

It's important to understand that each one of us overcomes anxiety disorders at their own speed. When you experience a certain setback, whether it's recurring fearful and scary thoughts, panic attacks or anything else related to anxiety, the thought process that you should have is that your anxiety is doing all it can to stand it's own ground because it is confused about this thought process and action that you are taking at that moment. If I tried snowboarding for example at this point in my life, I would be absolutely terrible at it, and it is at this point where I can go in two separate directions, I can either quit because I'm not achieving the desired result I'm looking for or I can persevere and in time my new found hobby of skateboarding can become easy, natural and effortless. Understand that 2 steps forward and one step back is still progression in the direction you want to go, setbacks are normal and should be accepted before re-conditioning your mind and lifestyle habits and taking your life back. But let's look at a few examples of how long it took myself to overcome debilitating anxiety, as well as a few examples of setbacks that may occur in your recovery from an anxiety disorder.

A Dream Came True

After suffering from debilitating anxiety and panic for 6 years, it took me roughly 9 months to completely stop my panic attacks, re-condition new meanings to what I feared, and stop my habit of over-worrying that just fed my cycle of anxiety. 9 months was a hell of a short time, compared to 6 years of suffering. My potential was fully realized after those 9 months in the form of reaching a dream I always had, becoming a professional tennis player.

More Example Of Setbacks

A certain person, place or thing that still causes a trigger for your panic attacks
overwhelming thoughts of 'what if' still present almost like your shadowr
New symptoms of anxiety appearing

Accept them, all of them. Let them be present, let them eat away at your mind and body knowing in the back of your mind that you're headed in the right direction and it can't hurt you. Remind yourself of step 4 Building On The Facts and go about your day looking at your anxiety as a little child starving for your attention, but you won't have any of it.