I’m a Therapist but Anxiety Still Plagues Me

However, I have found a few ways to fight back.

It’s been my nemesis and closest friend throughout most of my life. Through my own therapy and then training to help others, I’ve learned so many things that have helped me manage the “fear of the unknown” (more on this in an upcoming post) but every once in a while, something stirs it up again.

This time around, it was the pandemic.

I had nightmares about Covid-19 when the pandemic first began in March 2020. I would wake up sweating with dread over the anticipation of what was to come with our first lock-down.

Over the summer, my fears lightened a little. We found a way to manage safely and still enjoy life, but once it became cold again and numbers were rising in our area, my anxiety returned.

One truth I know about anxiety is, what you think things might be like is almost always worse than what it actually is. Our brains are great at creating scenarios that are rarely plausible, and despite significant evidence to prove otherwise, it will hold onto these scenarios and run with them. I spent so much time worrying about what might happen if we got Covid-19. So much energy was wasted on things I couldn’t control and it changed nothing.

We still got it, December 2020.

It sucked.

We got over it.

We got it again, January 2022.

It sucked a little less.

We got over it.

Life continues on.

We stop nothing with our worry.

We just waste precious time and energy feeling bad. You can assume the worst or you can assume the best, neither one impacts the outcome but one is going to make you feel a whole lot better than the other.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share. Here’s to brighter days ahead!