Seeking Help for Depression and Anxiety Starts With Awareness

For anyone seeking help for depression and anxiety, you’re probably very familiar with that feeling of alarm signals going off when you experience a scary thought or scary symptoms.

But what if we approached our scary thoughts and symptoms in a different way…

Let me tell you a story about how the old me used to respond to scary thoughts EVERY SINGLE time I went out.

Costco was a trigger for me.

It was always so busy and I felt especially panicked when I was in the middle of the store and the exits were so far away.

I would venture in but my brain was already running its own story about how I was going to feel stressed out when I got further in, and that I was going to feel dizzy again and that maybe this time I was going to actually pass out.

These thoughts would be swirling around before I even felt any real symptom.

And my brain would believe it.

I am kinda embarrassed to admit that there were more than a few times I ran out of Costco.

I mean SPRINT out!

I’ll never forget the look on this girl’s face once when I raced past her.

Looking back now, I can definitely see the humor (chuckling a little as I write this) but at the time it wasn’t so funny.

I fully believed that if I didn’t leave I was going to pass out or even die, no joke.

When I started to learn more about observing my symptoms, I was nervous, but I didn’t want to live in fear forever.

So the next time it started happening, I would observe, rather than become embroiled.

“Okay, so I feel a little dizzy, and that’s okay…”

I labeled each feeling in a kind of detached manner.

I then also challenged thoughts like “OMG Tamryn, you are going to effing faint!”

I would instead think, “Well, I have never fainted before, so I think I will wait this out a little longer.”

My symptoms would ALWAYS subside, I just had to give it some time and try and force myself to stay put until they did.

I am not saying it’s easy, but with time and practice, it definitely started to get better.

So now I urge you to try this next time your scary thoughts and symptoms start to flare up.

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