RECOVERY

[Mountainclimber]

Relaxation;
Initial trepidation of anxiety return
The reclamation of your original self ... it was completely intact and unflustered during the whole experience. To oversimplify ...the reason for this is your 'true personality' (you) is held in a different part of the brain than your 'inappropriate anxiety/panic personality', it is completely safe, sane, rational and calm and has been for the entire duration of your anxiety wisdom journey, regardless of how long you have had anxiety/panic, whether it has been days months years or decades;
The instantaneous ability to use the wisdom that anxiety has bequeathed to you. You actually become calmer than everyone else ... the 'normal' people. You know stress and fear intimately and can eliminate them instantly;
The opportunity to achieve anything you wish in the full knowledge that any of those old social/medical/psychological fears that used to hold you back can be accepted, ignored and subsequently eliminated;
A massive insight into why other people do what they do in relation to their own unconquered fears ... an observation that absolutely everyone in the world has inappropriate anxiety to greater or lesser degrees, and 99.999% don't even know it. They just react;
Later on … a complete knowledge of anxiety return impossibility;
An inner knowledge base of power that you know you will only ever use for good.

Just remember, Anxiety/Panic disorder in not a physical health problem, it's not a mental health problem. It is a problem of learned behaviour. Anxiety/Panic is in fact your ticket out of here. You need to re-teach Anxiety/Panic that we are unaffected by its presence.

To alleviate the issue you need Anxiety/Panic to be present. Anxiety/Panic is your student. How can it possibly learn if it does not turn up for class?!

[swgrl09]

Have you heard of IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapy/approach? Parts of what you said remind me a lot of IFS, and I am learning about it in school. I have considered getting trained in it so I can be a provider, but it is sooo costly to complete the training.

Anyway my point is that IFS believes we are all made up of many parts (multiplicity of mind), but at the center of it all we all have our "self" and this self has all the wisdom and power we need to heal ourselves. Our anxieties are just different parts of us that get extreme due to certain things we have experienced in life. They aren't bad parts, just trying to protect us in ways that we may not need. IFS therapy helps you learn to free these parts of their burdons so that they can take on a more productive role. The point isn't to get rid of the anxious parts but to help them learn that they do not need to react that way to protect us.

It sounds weird and out there, I know, but being somebody who is still struggling with anxiety it makes a lot of sense because I can truly feel that my anxious parts are not all of me. It gives me hope knowing that "I" am still somewhere in there and am not just solely anxiety. I guess it provides some hope, you know? I have all I need to get better and I am not just anxiety. Anxiety just sometimes takes over.

Anyway a lot of what you said reminded me of what I have been learning about IFS. I may seek out an IFS therapist for that kind of help, as I think my anxious parts carry a lot of burdons for me that I've developed all my life.