Dear Christy Lim:

I suffered from severe anxiety early on, from a very early age. I had my first competent, quality psychotherapy in 2011 (three years total, with a few breaks). Since 2011 I have been working very hard, daily, on healing from anxiety and I am still anxious. It is still a work-in-progress.

There is progress, definitely. In many ways. But the anxiety is still there. Anxiety is very powerful. It is fear, and fear is the most powerful emotion. It is so because in nature, animals are designed to survive, first and foremost, and to survive they need to escape danger. To escape danger, they have to notice danger fast. To notice danger… that is the purpose of fear. And so, fear is powerful.

There is such a thing as managing anxiety and healing from  anxiety. Both should go hand in hand. And it takes a lot of work, time, patience… lots and lots of patience. No magical solutions, no shortcuts.

Sometimes when you feel calm, you think (don’t you?) that you can be calm like this all the time, from now on… but anxiety will be back. So expect it. Then take on the long term process of managing and healing.

anita