Allay Anxiety|How to Deal with Anxiety, Cope without Drugs… Thrive!

I find that there are a lot of blogs about anxiety on the internet. So, the question becomes, why do I want to write my own. Well, it’s a good question but I believe that I have the answer. I believe that it actually does me some therapeutic good to write about my own personal struggles and the things that I have been through. So I do it.

Now, even if this blog is never read by anyone, though I am hoping that that won’t be the case, I can honestly say that I would not be discouraged. Because, and I don’t want this to sound self-centered, I write this blog for me. Because when I can vent about my own frustrations with anxiety, my own struggles suffering from it, then I get a cathartic release. Quite simply it benefits me quite a bit and that is a good reason to do it.

However, I hope that this blog becomes much more than that. I hope that I am able to share my strategies for coping with anxiety with others and that they may actually help others as well. I know I may sound like a bleeding-heart but I believe that when one has quality information to share it becomes their duty to share that information with humanity. And not everyone believes that. I hope you do.

Now, I research anxiety and mental health a lot. (I also, as a sufferer of social anxiety and panic attacks, have a lot of first hand knowledge on the matter.) What I have found in doing the research is that there are not a lot of people with first hand knowledge, ie they have lived with anxiety disorder, providing much quality information. The information usually comes from a couple of sources. First, there are clinicians and therapists who make their money working with people who need help. I don’t begrudge them for that as most are genuinely caring individuals who want to help. The problem comes from the fact that at the same they face a monetary reality. They need to make money to eat so they often take on all sorts of clients whether they can help them or not.

Now, I have seen countless therapists in both an inpatient and out patient setting and I can tell you that very few of them actually were anxiety sufferers themselves. In large part they were highly educated in the theories of psychology but most of what they knew came from a college seminar or a workshop. And, despite their best intentions, most of them were not able to be particularly helpful.

Like I said, I don’t begrudge them this fact. I just know that I was often quite disappointed when it turned out that the golden counsel my insurance had been paying $150 an hour to receive was essentially useless. I don’t care what your CBT therapist’s manual says… Your interventions are not helping!

Eventually, I parted ways with all of the advice-doctors that I had ever seen. I don’t mean to say that they are bad people, but, first and foremost, they are trying to put food on the table… And they put the food on the table by keeping you coming in to see them week after week. Currently, I see a shrink for medication management and that is it. And, honestly, I have never felt better. So, I don’t think it is likely that I will be returning to “seeing someone” anytime soon. However, if you see someone and it is working out great then by all means keep doing it. Though I would challenge you with a question. Do you see your therapist because you genuinely believe that they are helping you or do you see your therapist because you genuinely like them as a person and they have such a rooting interest in your life?

I pose this question to get you to think about improving your current lot in life. I don’t ask it to criticize you. But, are things improving since you’ve been seeing your current therapist? Think about it.

Now, I don’t write this out of any malicious motive. I think that being a therapist is a noble endeavor in theory. And I believe that every single (or very nearly every single) therapist that I saw wanted to help me. But, wanting to help me is not the same thing at all as actually helping me. And, on reflection, I have to say that all the therapists, MDs, PhDs, and DDSs that I have ever seen haven’t really added one thing to the bottom line. Sure, I have gotten better. Is it because of their pricey counsel? I doubt it.

And that’s the issue. At what point do you want to take ownership over your own health and well being? For me, I came to the realization that all the gains (and I mean every single one of them) could have been achieved with a little hard work and research. I never needed to step foot one in a therapist’s office except to realize what a giant waste of resources (both money and time) was being committed. And, once I realized this, it wasn’t a hard decision to tell my therapist that I no longer needed his/her services.

What can blogs teach you about dealing with anxiety? On this question, the answer somewhat eludes me. Oh sure, I think that the methods that I promote can be effective but I am not a therapist (Thank God for both of us). I do not tell you how to live your life or how to conduct your own treatment. But I ask these questions because, I know for me, the status quo wasn’t working. I came to a point where I needed to change something. And, for me, I realized that I needed to take ownership over my own treatment and well being.

Thus we come back to this blog. You may be wondering, “Aren’t there enough anxiety blogs?” And for me the answer is simple: The world could use one more! Like I said, I’ve been doing a lot of reading online to check out the other sites on this topic and I have been woefully disappointed. While there are a great number of such sites in quantity the number of those with quality (and by quality I mean not selling you an ebook or their own therapeutic services) is severely lacking. So, I have come to believe that in time, Allay Anxiety can become a quality resource. And, believe me, I write this blog for myself as much as I do for my readers.

So, I suppose, I have lampooned the entire professional mental health establishment, but, hey, somebody had to say it. And, I’m sure I’ll get an email or two about how so-and-so’s therapist is the bee’s knees and they couldn’t live without them. However, I hope I have got the gray matter pumping because, frankly, it is your life. It’s time to take ownership of it.