Mine was the work it would entail re: solutions. It makes me feel pretty stupid to admit, but I simply was much too passive with advice and solutions early on in my battle.

Once I got over the hurdle of humbling myself and going to a counselor, I became frustrated with him about 2 months in. I felt like he was saying the same old thing (he focuses more on CBT) and I couldnt understand why I wasn't getting a benefit from his counsel.

It took my own epiphany (during a session) to finally realize that I just kind of expected all of these CBT excercises and all of the sound advice to just sort of "seep in" and make things better.

It's easy to be so distraught, tired, upset, scared & fearful that we just HOPE that solutions/advice/therapy goes in our earholes and then just manifests.

Nope. WORK is what gets us there. Honing this new skillset of anxiety management. You most have to treat it like you are training to run a marathon or become a power lifter- small baby steps to start, but you're working at it daily to reach your goals.

You're so right, DBLEspressoDee. I started having anxiety attacks in my early 20s. Bang! One day I felt like I was dying. This was many years ago and the docs dismissed it. They also missed my Hashimotos disease, which was not really understood back in the late 60s. It was just your thyroid that needed a little, The med didn't help, thought I was going crazy. So it's been decades of dealing with this and therapists, though things improved as Hashimotos was better understood.
I became a newspaper reporter and now publish a magazine. My childhood dreams came true, but at times I still find it difficult to tame the nightmare of anxiety.
Even having been to more therapists than I can count, I'm still sitting here bleeding anxiety symptoms while trying to use my mind and breath to calm them. Thank you for reminding me to do the work on this, that I'm not a newbie, and I've handled a lot worse. Granted, it wasn't in the middle of a pandemic.
And for the last: my biggest misunderstanding of solutions. Just when you think you have it all together, you crumble. But you also learn a lot about your strength when you get back up and put your pieces back together again.

I believe that my biggest misunderstanding of anxiety is that it is unnatural and undesirable. That misunderstanding caused quite me to give myself allot of black eyes in the fight to **just get over it**.

Anxiety is a natural part of the survival instinct. Despite the complex weave of problems caused by my over-developed survival instinct, the base instinct remains both desirable and beneficial. In accepting its place in the natural order, I shift the focus to managing/training my survival instinct instead of continually fighting Mother Nature.

So I believe. . . Scientific proof unavailable.

Like Arfie states, anxiety is natural and desirable part of our well-being.

The difference is when it overloads in its quest to give us calm. Finding the balance of using its help to raise our level of calm, takes significant 'work' on a daily basis for a lot of people.

CBT (cognitive behavior treatment) plans take a path of self-help techniques to use in all types of situations, beginning at home, and reaching out.

Here's to Finding what works when and to know that it's not a one size fits all solution.

@DCWriter
This response was nice to read. I havent been dealing with anxiety nearly as long, but its just nice to hear that if I do, you need those reminders to put in the work. To not get distracted or ride good waves too long without using your tools to keep level & guided.

@arfie

Thanks for this. I feel like we all battle feeling "abnormal" with anxiety.

Continuing to be hard on yourself, even after you have learned its a) common these days b) normal "fight or flight if you are struggling with massive mental pressure/issues, can be ridiculously hard on oneself.