What? How can anxiety be OK?
Wait, before you slam the laptop shut and never read my blog again, let me explain…
Anxiety, the physiological state of being fearful of a future event, is by itself neutral. It’s uncomfortable, sure. But I was reading something the other day that I wanted to share with you, and really illustrates what the real problem with anxiety is.
Studies show about 35% of young adults have one or more panic attacks a year.
Yet in contrast to this, only about 3 – 5% of the general population are “diagnosable” for a panic disorder. Panic disorder of course is recurrent panic attacks, or fear of having panic attacks, that limit one’s life and cause subjective distress.
So why the difference?
Well, it appears the majority of people that experience panic attacks, aren’t overly distressed by them and as a result of being accepting and allowing them to come and go, they move on with their lives.
Simply put – they don’t become afraid of having a panic attack, they accept it.
Radical as this might seem, the skills I have built into my system for managing social anxiety can teach you how to accept and allow experiences of anxiety without freaking out.
Kyle