So, first what do you hope to find in an anxiety cure? Are you looking for a new anxiety pill to pop or a new therapy technique to experience? If you are looking for those kind of cures then I may have some bad news. I am not entirely certain that there are cures to be found in those two areas, but before we go further let us just address those two questions individually.

First, is there a pill that functions as a cure for anxiety? The answer to this question is simple, it is no, and the question also illustrates a lack of quality thinking on the subject. The type of pills and medications that are commonly marketed as anxiety cures are called benzodiazepines. There are nearly two dozen different benzo medications and some of the more common are sold under the trade names of ativan, zanax, klonopin, and valium. I have been on this class of medications and even went to a mental health treatment center as a result of being on them. Here’s what I know about them.

First, benzodiazepines are not a miracle cure for anxiety. What they are are extremely addicting medicines that cause horrible and profound side effects when you miss a dose and they have a terrible withdrawal syndrome. Now, on the plus side, they do relieve many of the most acute forms of anxiety symptoms, the sweating palms, the rapid heart beat, the cognitive disorientation and the flushing of the face. These meds will decrease such anxiety symptoms. However, they only work in the short term. If your problems persist you will have to keep taking the benzos, maybe indefinitely. And there is the problem.

If you start to take, let’s say Xanax or Klonopin, every day you will develop a certain dependency to that medicine and therefore if and when you are not feeling anxious you will not be able to stop taking them. Rather than cure your anxiety they only ameliorate your symptoms. It is like putting a blanket on when you’re cold, you might not be cold anymore but if you take the blanket off you are once again cold. It does not “cure” your coldness.

But it is a whole lot worse than that. You see, benzodiazepines are effective in the short term but are nearly useless for chronic anxiety. Your body delivers a tolerance to them so even if you take 5mg of klonopin a day, within six months your anxiety symptoms will return as your body adjusts to the medication. You will only experience short term relief. For maybe six months or a year will be able to handle your symptoms but then what happens? I’ll tell you, your anxiety comes back. And then you have two options: You can increase the dosage of your medication or simply continue to suffer. Eventually, you will reach a point where no doctor will increase your medication any further. But, the really awful thing about these medications is that they are terrifically addicting. You will need to take them to avoid horrible withdrawal. And I don’t mean a little discomfort. I mean life-threatening withdrawal. Read that again if it is unclear. If you become addicted to benzos you will need to be medically detoxed off of them so that you avoid a life-threatening seizure. That’s a tough pill to swallow but it’s the truth.

So medicines are really not cures for anxiety.

So, just quickly, let me address curing anxiety through therapy as well. A good therapist can help you tremendously. They are an invaluable resource that shouldn’t be diminished. I believe that therapists can really get you thinking about ways to attack your anxiety and ways to decrease it. But, they will not be able to offer an anxiety cure. This is simple enough, for a psychologist treats the symptoms of the anxiety attacks.

He does not treat the underlying assumptions that are causing you to become anxious in the first place. So, a therapist can be very helpful in an ongoing treatment program for severe anxiety, but he is simply not going to be helpful in eliminating your anxiety. In many ways a therapist or psychiatrist is similar to an anxiety medication. They are helpful, in the moment, for alleviating anxiety symptoms, however as soon as the pill wears off, you leave his office, you are right back where you started off. It isn’t really the answer after all.

The other thing you need to think about is the fact that most psychologists want to work on something rational. They, in general, don’t do so well treating anxiety because anxiety is really not something that you can “talk” your way out of. When you are having an anxiety attack, and you have no doubt felt this, your brain is being flooded with tons of chemicals that are causing a powerful reaction in your mind. You are under the spell of the panic attack. You are not thinking logically and rationally and you can not simply think your way out of it. And remember what a therapist is going to do is try to teach you to think your way out of it. That isn’t an anxiety cure, it is an anxiety delusion.

So, while both anxiety medication and individual appointments with a therapist can be helpful, neither is a cure for anxiety. And what we are looking for are anxiety cures. If you’re like me you are sick of simply masking the unpleasantness or trying to suffer through an attack more quickly you want to eliminate the anxiety from you life. You want to cure your anxiety. I understand exactly where you are coming from. And I do believe there is such a thing as an anxiety cure. In fact, I am about to share the cure for anxiety with you.

First, and this is important, read my earlier article about the mind shift technique. Seriously, go read it. Ok, so you’re back. First, welcome back. I hope you were able to internalize the type of change in thinking I was talking about in that article because we are going to talk about it here. if you need to go ahead and reread it because we are going to be talking about it in depth here…

The key to an everlasting anxiety cure is your mind. You see, I know why you are having anxiety attacks in the first place because I was there myself. You’re having anxiety attacks because you are worried about some consequence. Now the consequence could be embarrassment or it could be pain or it could be death or it could be misfortune. Whatever, you are obsessing about some consequence and that is causing your panic attacks. Simply put you are afraid, afraid about this consequence. You are so deathly afraid of it that you are literally causing your brain to spasm with toxins and chemicals just by thinking about the possibility of this consequence coming to fruition. Terrifying isn’t it.

So, take a moment and think about the consequence that causes you the most extreme anxiety. It’s probably some pretty unpleasant consequence that scares you to death. Don’t worry that’s natural. It has to be a pretty scary consequence to cause the type of reaction that it does in your brain. And, naturally, as a result of this you get a terrible anxiety attack.

So, what do we need to do to cure you of this pattern of thinking? Well, we’ll get to that in a moment. Now, remember the consequence that you were thinking about just a moment ago. Well, you are going to have to confront it. Here’s how. You need to decide, however, which is more important to you, avoiding the consequence or eliminating your anxiety. Because sometimes the anxiety, however unpleasant, is actually more appealing than facing the consequence that you are dreading.

Do you follow. You need to decide. Which is worse, the anxiety or the consequence. If you would prefer not to face this consequence then you will remain in a panic ridden, anxious state — possibly forever. If you want the anxiety cure, you are going to need to face this consequence head on. But I do not mean “face the fear” as some describe it. For instance, if you are terrified about driving in the rain, I’m not recommending that you “face” that fear by driving in a monsoon. No, not at all. Because your fight or flight reflex is very real. Simply traumatizing yourself does NOT alleviate the fear.

So, what am I recommending? It’s simple. Acceptance. Whatever you fear might actually happen, but you know what, that will be okay. The earth will continue to rotate around the sun if you get caught behind the wheel during a hurricane. Life will go on.

So, the way to cure anxiety is to accept that that might happen. Overcoming anxiety depends on your ability to be OK with the nightmare that is your consequence. Whatever you fear… it might happen. I can’t tell you otherwise and naturally you fear this outcome terribly. But what if it did come true. Do you know what…

The universe would continue to go on. Life as we know it would probably not cease to exist. Sure, it would be terrible and that’s why you fear it, but ask yourself this: Is this fear, this overwhelming anxiety worth it? is it worth it to you to continue to live in this terrible fear?

Simply accept that whatever you fear will come true. Or it has already. It stinks. It’s terrible. But it’s a reality. Get over it. If you accept your fear will come true you will stop worrying, obsessing and agonizing over it. In order to cure anxiety you have to be willing to say to yourself, “I don’t care.” You must be willing to say to yourself that the anxiety caused by the fear is worse than the consequence that you fear. Regardless of what you are worried about, it is controlling your life already. It is making you miserable. It is winning. Turn the tides by deciding it will come true, it has come true, or it is coming true already and you simply do not care.

Do you see now? The only anxiety cure that you need is in your mind. If you master your fear by accepting its inevitability, you will cure your anxiety. Stop worrying and just accept. That is the ultimate anxiety cure, my friends.