Recovery Guide
to Anxiety Disorders
Getting rid of anxiety disorders isn't the same as taking out the trash. If you take your trash out to the curb, it's gone forever, and won't come back. But when you try to dispose of chronic anxiety, you will often find that this task is more like the child's game, "Whack a Mole", than it's like taking out the trash. Each time you hit a mole, more moles pop up. Every effort that you make to fight against anxiety, invites more of it. So you need to be able to work smart, not hard. This guide will help you do that.
The Anxiety Trick
The fears, phobias, and worry that you experience with chronic anxiety often seem "irrational", and difficult to overcome. That's because there is a "Trick" to chronic anxiety problems. Have you ever wondered why fears and phobias seem like such difficult problems to solve? The reason is that chronic fears literally trick you into thinking and acting in ways that make the problem more chronic. You can't learn to float through anxiety and worry if you don't understand the Anxiety Trick.The outcome of the Anxiety Trick is that people get fooled into trying to solve their anxiety problems with methods that can only make them worse. They get fooled into "putting out fires with gasoline".
The Key Fears
There are six principal anxiety disorders. The fears are different, but each one relies on the same Anxiety Trick, and draws upon the same kinds of anxiety symptoms. And in each case, the person tries to extinguish the fears by responding in ways that actually make the problem worse and more chronic. Here are the key fears, and typical responses, of each anxiety disorder.
Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
A person with Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia fears that a panic attack will disable him in some way - kill him, make him crazy, make him faint, and so on. In response, he often goes to great lengths to protect himself from a panic attack, by avoiding ordinary activities and locations; by carrying objects, like water bottles and cell phones, that he hopes will protect him; by trying to distract himself from the subject of panic; and numerous other strategies will ultimately make the problem more persistent and severe, rather than less.
Social Anxiety Disorder (or Social Phobia)
A person with Social Phobia fears becoming so visibly and unreasonably afraid in front of other people that they will judge her as a weak, inadequate person, and no longer associate with her. In response, she often goes to great lengths to avoid social experiences, hoping that this avoidance will save her from embarrassment and public humiliation. However, her avoidance of social situations leads her to become more, rather than less, fearful of them, and also leads to social isolation.The fear of public speaking, and the broader fear of stagefright are considered to be specific instances of Social Phobia.
Specific Phobia
There are two kinds of specific phobia. In the first kind, a person fears that some specific object (perhaps a dog) or activity (perhaps flying) will hurt or kill him.In the second kind, the person thinks that she will become so afraid in the presence of the object as to lose control of herself in some terrible way. For instance, a person who fears dogs might worry about losing her mind, or running wildly into traffic if she comes near a dog. In response, the person often avoids the feared item entirely, or suffers miserably when forced to tolerate it. The fear of flying and the fear of public speaking are among the most common phobias. A blood phobia is a less typical, but no less disturbing, condition.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
A person experiences intrusive, unwelcome thoughts (called obsessions) which are so persistent and upsetting that he fears the thoughts might not stop.In response, he tries to stop having those thoughts with a variety of efforts (called compulsions). Unfortunately, the compulsions usually become a severe, upsetting problem themselves. For example, a man may have obsessive thoughts that he might pass swine flu on to his children, even though he doesn't have the flu himself, and wash his hands repetitively in an effort to get rid of that thought. Or a woman may have obsessive thoughts that she left the garage door open, and repeatedly check the garage all night in an effort to stop thinking that. Not only do these efforts fail to rid the person of the unwelcome thoughts, they become a new form of torment in that person's life.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
A person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder worries repeatedly and continually about a wide variety of possible problems, and becomes so consumed by worry that she fears the worry will eventually kill her or drive her to a "nervous breakdown". In response, she often tries a wide variety of "thought control" methods she hopes will enable her to "stop thinking about it." Distraction is one such effort. Unfortunately, the effort to stop thinking about it actually makes the worrisome thoughts more persistent.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
A person who has witnessed or experienced some dangerous or life threatening event (a shooting or a car crash) fears that the subsequent thoughts and powerful reminders of that event will lead to a loss of control or mental illness. The powerful symptoms of fear and upset a person experiences when recalling a terrible event are reactions to that event. However, the person gets tricked into responding to these reactions as if they were warnings of an upcoming danger, rather than reminders of a past one.
And Depression, too?
It's very common for people to experience depression in response to the way anxiety has disrupted their lives. Less frequently, sometimes people experienced a strong depression before the anxiety set in, and this is a different kind of problem. Either way, depressive symptoms need to be addressed in recovery, so it's useful to know something about how depression and anxiety disorders are related.
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