Dear Rohail Bukhari:

My answer is that the most difficult thing about experiencing depression and anxiety is our lack of faith that we can endure it, that these emotions are survivable.

True to me: I fear experiencing pain, be it fear itself or deep depression, hopelessness and such. I fear these feelings as if they are deadly. The fear of distress (fear, depression, etc.) escalates the distress.

I realize that I felt plenty of distress for decades and I physically survived it. So far. This fact builds a case, for me, that distress is survivable. Once having faith that I will survive current and future distress of the kind I already survived, the extra distress is peeled off.

anita