A good tip can be as useful as a month of therapy
It may seem obvious, but realizing that stress was kicking off my anxiety has gone a long way to erode its grip on me. Anxiety drugs never did that for me. For that reason, Gina Ryan has been a source of inspiration and information in my struggle. She is not just a well-meaning psychologist who read about anxiety disorder in a few books and is now an expert. She has been through it herself, and she has a shaman’s knowledge of the subject.
Medications mask anxiety. They provide no permanent relief that is not dependent on continuing to take the medication. That doesn’t mean that some people do not need or should not take medications. I’m not an expert on everyone else. I know myself better than anyone else does, though, and I’ve never had a positive experience with taking anxiety medication. For me, the only thing that works is to recognize the anxiety symptoms before they become full-blown. That is why Gina Ryan speaks to me in my struggle.
This audio course is divided into sections that each deliver several tips for either recognizing an anxiety attack before it starts, or else dealing with it as it wells up. Ryan’s “5 Tips for the Highly Sensitive Person with Anxiety” is a perfect example. It hits on an often-ignored issue that causes a lot of people to struggle with anxiety issues – myself included. I went through it in school, and it carried over into my adult life. Being sensitive makes me creative, but it causes me to overthink everything and get anxious.
Ryan suggests using that creativity to find a solution to each anxiety occurrence. Recognize it first, she says, then “lean into it.” The first time I tried it, I realized I was suddenly thinking clearly about the problem, rather than succumbing to it. She calls it “learning how to pause.” Again, it might seem obvious, but it wasn’t to me. Just stepping out and looking it was therapeutic.
There are many more little tips and tidbits sprinkled throughout this audio course. There is no one magic bullet that will cure your anxiety, but you won’t find that anywhere. It simply doesn’t exist. Sad to say, but the truth is that people who struggle with anxiety will likely always have that tendency (unless you discover a food allergy or something else that is causing it). Finding solutions that work is like striking gold, though. The only problem is that you have to keep searching them out. With Ryan’s work, that search is a lot less tiresome.
Listen to Tips and Tools to Help You On Your Way Out Of Anxiety and more self-improvement audio programs on Audiojoy — download free on iOS or Android.
Content Review by Maisey Gates