It goes without saying that most victims suffering from anxiety conditions will be trying various ways to beat it or at least manage it.
In your pursuit of conquering anxiety, be wary of the following things that can actually make it worst.
1) Avoidance
The proper way to confront problems is to face them.
When it comes to emotional conditions, avoidance is never a good way to alleviate it. It is only a method to delay another attack.
For example, if you are afraid of a big bully at work or in school, avoiding that bully only intensifies the fear associated with meeting him.
2) Intoxication
Getting high on alcohol, marijuana, or other substances, legal or illegal, might provide relief.
But surely you should be aware that such “treatment” can only offer short term relief and is never a good long term management plan.
In fact, studies have shown that using substances to manage mental-related conditions like stress and anxiety will only aggravate the condition in the long run.
3) Complaining
Yes. It is not the fault of the sufferer to have to live with such health conditions.
But since this is a mental-related issue, whining and complaining about will not do good to the victims or the family members around them.
The recommended manner to approach this is to acknowledge that there is a problem. And that certain measures has to be taken in order to manage or fully eliminate it.
Complaining will only make the condition worse.
4) Pushing too hard
Like victims of car accidents who suffer from physical injuries, it can take time to heal and get the body to get back in shape.
If athletes for example, suffered a fractured leg, it’s going to take a lot of time from multiple surgeries and physiotherapy to completely recover.
Pushing themselves too hard to recover faster can be counter-productive.
The same can be said of anxiety treatment.
It takes time. And the best way forward is to aim for progress a step at a time.
5) Seeking quick fixes
It seems that there will always be exotic, holistic, and even metaphysical types of treatment for every health condition known to the modern world.
While medical science cannot validate most of them, they cannot be fully written-off too.
It only takes 1 patient who recovers from anxiety attacks using traditional holistic treatments to see that there might be more to ancient treatments than modern science is willing to admit. And we know that there are thousands of people getting healed by such treatments all over the world.
The problem comes when you expect instant gratification and do not find it. Maybe your body does not respond as well as you expected. Or maybe your application was wrong.
Miracles do happen. But you can’t bet your house on it that you’d be a beneficiary.
Whatever the case, expecting instant recovery and not getting it can often lead victims to depression and make their anxiety problems even worse.
6) Only relying on medication
Medication often treat the symptoms of anxiety. They do not treat anxiety itself.
It’s a mental game. And you have to beat it with your brain. Not pills manufactured in a laboratory.
Medicine can aid the recovery. But do not solely rely on it to cure you.
7) Self management without help
A lot of victims suffer from anxiety, but refuse to allow the people around them to know that. This could be due to social pressure and a prospect of feeling embarrassment.
This is not the way to go.
Accept that you have an issue to resolve and allow the people closest to you to help. There is nothing more reassuring than to have supportive family and friends behind you.
There is no shame to admit you have a problem with anxiety disorder. People get sick all the time. Live with it and allow people to help you get over it.
Trying to recover by yourself can be detrimental to the overall condition of the sufferer.