Lie #1: Diet and exercise is the way out
While diet and exercise are good supplements to overall recovery, they are not as important as actually gradaully exposing yourself to situations where your health anxiety will be challanged. Challanging your anxious brain is a hard thing to do. So we tend to take the easier path of following strict diets and doing rigorous exercise. Therefore, the efficient way is to follow an average diet and do basic exercise. It's you ability to put effort in challanging your belief about symptoms that will make the difference.
Lie #2: My anxiety is the worst kind
No matter how bad you think you have it, there will always be someone else who has it worse. We tend to exaggerate our fear and belittle our own ability to handle it. The way out of this lie is to define your fears and give each one of them a clear counter-argument. For example, the fear of “I’ll have a heart attack” may have a counter-argument “I did a medical checkup and there is nothing wrong with my heart." Keep coming back to this fact every moment anxiety tries to trap you.Lie #3: I’ll do it tomorrow
There is no tomorrow, there is only now. Trying to postpone recovery until later shows that it’s not a priority for you at the moment. And guess what, it will not be a priority tomorrow as well. You have to clearly define your priorities and remove all the distractions, if you are truly serious about recovery. However, motivation could become challanging with time, so I highly recommend a book by Stephen Guise “Mini Habits”, which has an interesting and effective approach towards motivation.Lie #4: I’m weak
Anxiety’s goal is to destroy your confidence, so it will do everything to make you criticize yourself. The answer is not sugarcoating but stating facts – you are dealing with health anxiety and even though no one understands what you are going through,. The things that you are able to do considering your level of anxiety is absolutely amazing. You are a strong individual on the path to understanding your anxiety and how it works. You are ready to practice for as long as it takes to complete this journey because you have already traveled a long distance and there is no way back.Lie #5: I should not feel anxious
Recovery is not about suppressing or avoiding your anxiety. You cannot not feel anxious because it’s just part of being human. Therefore, when we say that we should not feel a certain way, we put an emotional burden on ourselves, which leads to self-criticism, uncertainly, doubt and more anxiety. You have no other choice but to let anxiety be and do what it does, all you can do is just acknowledge it’s there and resume with your day.Thank you for reading this article. You can learn more about anxiety in our CBT Course for Anxiety absolutely free of charge. If you want to support us, you can visit our store for sustainable mental health awareness clothing. Part of our profits go to support mental health charities and non-profits.
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