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Just when you think you’re doing everything you possibly can to overcome your anxiety, you find yourself having a full-blow anxiety attack. It’s common to think that you’re following your therapists’ instruction precisely, executing what you’ve learned in your anxiety self-help books and facing your fears every day, but what’s even more common are these 5 mistakes people with anxiety make.
5 Mistakes People With Anxiety Make
Now, in no way is anyone perfect but the key to overcoming anxiety is to practice self-awareness, so that you know when you are doing things that can hinder your healing. More importantly, so you can correct your thought patterns and behaviours.
1. Spending Too Much Time on Social Media
Social media is simply bad news for everyone but even more so for people with anxiety. We recently shared a post on our Anxiety Gone Instagram that said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” And what do you do on social media? You read people’s statuses, watch their videos and look at photos of everyone else’s “amazing life”, only to then compare it to your own.
Often times, people with anxiety do this without even recognizing it, which is why self-awareness is so important. It’s imperative to realize that social media isn’t a realistic view into someone’s life. People share what they want to share and often times, this doesn’t involve sharing the dark corners of one’s life. To put it simply, social media offers an incredibly skewed look at what’s really going on.
P.S. Yoga is amazing at teaching you how to become more self-aware. Check out some of our favourite types of yoga for anxiety.
2. Blaming Yourself or Others for your Anxiety
Anxiety sucks. There’s no doubt about that but what sucks even more is getting caught up in this self-blame, you’re-to-blame cycle that will never get you anywhere.
It’s so easy to blame that person for making you have anxiety at school or that person for making you anxious at the restaurant or yourself for having anxiety, period. However, as the saying goes, “Nothing worth having comes easy”.
What’s more important than figuring out who’s to blame is figuring out what you can do to decrease anxiety and alleviate your symptoms. You are in control of your destiny, your mental health and your healing. You just have to choose to get better and blame is the opposite of doing just that.
3. Spending Too Much Time and Effort Attempting To Decrease Anxiety
This mistake is an unusual one because how can you possibly spend too much time and effort trying to overcome anxiety? While it’s important to do just that, it’s equally as important to physically do what is causing you to have anxiety.
We often say, you can have all the anxiety tools and techniques available, but if you never put them to use, they won’t do anything for you. So, continue to invest your time and effort to decrease your anxiety but also take the time to face your fears and practice self-love, self-awareness, self-care and wellbeing. Again, yoga for anxiety is amazing for this, particularly, Yoga For Healing.
4. Not Spending Enough Time and Effort Attempting to Decrease Anxiety
With the prior said, it’s also important to mention that one of the biggest mistakes people with anxiety make is not doing anything about it. You will never get better if you don’t make time to do just that. You have anxiety-self help books to read , you have to face the things that are causing you to have anxiety, you have to find natural anxiety relief or medication, you have to take time to exercise… And the list goes on.
Overcoming anxiety is a choice. It won’t happen on its own. So, don’t dismiss the basics of self-care. Eat clean, use essential oils, take time to relax and read a book, eliminate toxic people from your life, shower, etc.
5. Only Thinking Of Anxiety in Negative Terms
Trust us, we understand how difficult it is to see anxiety as anything other than the enemy. After all, what could possibly be positive about having anxiety or panic disorder? If that’s what you’re thinking right now, it’s time to change your mindset.
Yes, anxiety is absolutely brutal but by changing the way you look at it, you can alleviate the stress and anxiety you put on yourself simply for having this mental illness.
You want to eliminate as much negativity, self-doubt, self-blame, and self-hate as possible. Consider seeing your anxiety as something that makes you stronger as a person, or something that makes you unique; something that makes you more kind, understanding and courteous or something that makes you detail-oriented.
Anxiety isn’t a flaw. It isn’t who you are. It’s just something you’re dealing with.
