Dear all

When I was having a good day earlier this week, I thought I'd write some advcie for myself to help me through the bad days.

I know it's presumptious but I thought I would share it with you. Hope you get something from it.

Deano
xx


You are suffering from anxiety – you’re not having a heart attack and the symptoms you are experiencing and caused by the anxiety. Say this and believe it because it’s true. It’s just the fogginess in your brain that is stopping you from believing it.

You’re not going to die. Anxiety cannot cause death. It just makes you feel like awful sometimes. People that suffer from anxiety can still live long lives.

Don’t be intimidated by it. Be strong and act normal as far as you possibly can. If you stop doing things, then it wins and becomes stronger. If you follow the instructions of the anxiety, you are telling it that you believe it, that what it is telling you is true. You have to ignore it to show it that you don’t believe it.

Above all remember that it will pass. Some days are better and some days are worse. It’s all part of the journey. If you are going through a bad day, look forward to the day when it is better, when you feel normal again. If you are feeling good enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

Take comfort in the things that you love. Think of happy things, and rather than imagining sticky ends for yourself and everyone else, think of holidays and things like that. There are lots of good things and happy things amongst the gloom.

Don’t beat yourself up for suffering from anxiety. We all have different things we suffer from and this is an illness like any other. You have always suffered from it to some degree and you probably always will. You can’t change this so accept it and try to learn ways to deal with the anxiety. Don’t fight what you cannot change.

And now three phrases to remember, I think they come from Alcoholics Anonymous, but they can apply to anyone who is struggling with person issues:

Be easy on yourself – don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t cope too well or have bad days. Forgive yourself and take care of yourself.

Let go and let god – don’t dwell on things that you are powerless to do anything about. There are many things in life that are beyond our control in life, so what’s the point about worrying about these things if we cannot control them?

Take it one day at a time – Get through each day the best you can. Fight today’s battles today, and leave tomorrow’s until tomorrow.