What Recovering from Anxiety is Like

Many of us become very frustrated and find ourselves burned out very often or most of the time; in fact, burn out is a fact of life at some point in our lives, for all of us affected by anxiety. When recovering from anxiety, for example, we do not magically become "better" and then suddenly have everything come to us. We do not have this euphoric revelation where everything is suddenly wonderful after being so difficult for so long.

Rather, recovering from anxiety is a gradual process in most cases. It seems that anxiety that is brought on by some tragic event or extraordinary circumstances in one's life can be cured rather quickly, but in most cases, it has taken many years to form the anxiety condition, and as a result, it will take several years' worth of hard work to get back in a good place in life.

The strategy that is probably most helpful for anxiety-sufferers to understand is the "two steps forward, one step back" strategy that is very cliché in present times. What does this cliché mean? It means that for every two successes we have in recovering from anxiety, we are going to also probably experience one setback. It seems that this happens to everyone, from those who seem to have a natural knack for dealing with anxiety well to those who have no clue at all on how to recover from anxiety.

The other idea that this cliché makes pertinent in our minds is that we will all fail or fall short of our goals at some point in our recovery. In fact, not only will we fail from time to time, we will all fail hundreds, even thousands, of times to take the steps that we need in order to recover from anxiety. So, if we fail so much, why even bother trying to recover from anxiety? Does life even get better?

Well, if we try to quantify the amount of progress the cliché indicates, we know that if we are taking two steps forward and one step back, we are making a net gain of one step forward. One step forward is progress, and if we repeat the two steps forward, one step back process hundreds or even thousands of times, we are hundreds and thousands of steps forward from where we were. In practical terms, this means that our anxiety level will be much lower than we first started confronting our anxiety.

An example of this cliché in real life would be that perhaps a social phobic challenges him or herself, or our counselor/professional challenges him or her to make three attempts to talk to random people as he or she goes about his or her usual business in the next week. Let us say that on the first day this phobic is feeling shaky, but confident enough to at least try, and manages to make a random comment about the weather to someone while waiting in line at the grocery store. Let us then say that the next day, the phobic then greats a passerby while going on a morning walk. Finally, this has been so much work for the phobic in question and has been very hard on his or her anxiety, so much so that the phobic is feeling so anxious that he or she feels unable to make the effort start a conversation with a stranger.

What this cliché, and I, assert is that the person has done a good job for the week! While he or she has not done a perfect job, perfection is not what is important. The important thing is that this person continues to make the attempts to break out of the anxious cycle that is present in his or her life.

This is how the recovery process is for most people - a mix of success and failure.

So, while one can expect to fail on a regular basis, one has to keep in mind that he or she will make a full recovery if he or she continues to work at recovering from anxiety. Little differences will slowly be noticed over time, and after a year or two of hard work, that person will be amazed at where he or she is in comparison to where he or she started.

Remember to focus on the attempts made at breaking out of anxiety, and the progress that has occurred in one's life as a result. While it may be difficult, focusing on the positive and the progress keeps one in the right mindset. It increases motivation and personal happiness, which is the reason why people want to recover from anxiety. So, get out there and start taking the steps that you need to take to recover from anxiety, and if you need to take a break, feel free to do so because challenging anxiety is hard work!