How l cured anxiety in 4 months

Hello, and sorry for the clickbaity title.

I'll try to divide this post into multiple chapters so you can skip what you don't care about, l want to say l cured my anxiety because l just... Don't feel anxiety anymore, not over my triggers (which l had a full blown convo about yesterday with a friend without understanding why l would ever fear it, a trigger that would borderline put me in shock before) and if l do get anxiety l know exactly how to handle it (and so do you since you make it go away multiple times every day)

Chapter 1 : My story

I'm a guy who suffered from depression since l was 10, l had a "normal" amount of anxiety, but 4 years ago l had an anxiety episode, very minor and l overcame it by just letting it happen.

It happened again last year, overcame it by meditating everyday. Everything was fine, but then stress overwhelmed me, and l skipped meditating a LOT.

Then, 4 months ago, my brain put itself in fight or flight thinking about one of my triggers, l'd hyperventilate thinking about them sometimes but it was manageable, this time, past the hyperventilating the fear stayed, it was soul crushing. The day after, it didn't get better, l was still very sensitive, and my brain kept "jumpscaring" me.

On a side note, the symptoms

I had an anxiety attack and spent weeks away from my bedroom where it happened, my mind was showing me images of my triggers and spamming me with "what if" scenarios that would make me feel really really scared, l'd be doing fine in public then be bombared with thoughts and images, it'd then put me in derealization, but meditating would pull me out of derealization and l'd be in fear again, then l'd also fear going insane and it made things worse. Kinda funny... In retrospect

Chapter 2 : The first month, the mistakes to avoid.

I immediately thought "ok time to just try and not think about the triggers at all, if l don't think anything l can't think of what scares me."

How wrong l was, l was essentially conditioning my brain into accepting fear, into accepting that thinking about my triggers was a really really really bad thing, and no amount of meditating is gonna bring you to a point where you don't think a single thought.

I became very religious, l don't think it helped, quit organized religion since, l don't know about your beliefs but expecting god to heal you will lead you to hating him.

l believed avoiding the triggers would save me, one of them was going outside. It didn't.

Chapter 3 : The first month and the things l did right

The few things l did right were that : I ran every 2 days.

I had to run for an event, so it pushed me outside. Running taught me that going outside was okay, it also boosted my self esteem. Who would have thought a fat guy who never does cardio could run for 2 hours straight? Needless to say that running and working out also lowers your cortisol.

I also walked, every single day, for half an hour a day at least. I still do to this day, sometimes multiple walks even, it helps so much, l would rank this as a life saving habit.

The second thing l did right was meditate without going too deep. I've meditated for a year and a half now, l can go deep, but l dislike deep meditation when feeling anxious, it's too overwhelming. The practice that calmed me down into being functioning was meditating in slices of 10 minutes with 5 minutes of rest inbetween.

10 minutes may seem like a lot to some, but you will not escape anxiety without mindfulness meditation, because one of the side effects of meditation is that it makes your depression go away, it makes your restless mind shut up, it makes your brain stop saying things like "this is torture l will never get better."

Because the fact is, you will get better.

I also took vitamins, fish oil pills, magnesium, ashwaganda and chlorella, they helped with my fatigue and low energy levels, so l believe it to be a net positive.

If you're gonna stop reading here that's okay, l'm not the best writer, but please read about exposure therapy and positive affirmations. They are the most important things you can do for anxiety, l believe in you. Peace.

Chapter 4 : The second month, exposure therapy and positive thinking

Ahhh, positive thinking. "Just be happy dude", but unironically. Go ahead and smile right now, you feel better don't you? So it's this easy then? Yeah, almost, staying positive while being pulled down by negativity is not easy.

It takes a real warrior to pull that shit off, but guess what, YOU are a warrior my sisters and brothers, YOU have what it takes to overcome this, because it is YOU who overcomes it every single day. The main thing is to remember : if you have a negative thought, don't run from it, don't dread it, challenge it rationally. "What if" It won't, and if it does l don't have to worry about it right now.

You don't "cure" anxiety, you create a mind that sees the tricks of anxiety for what it is : worthless thoughts, and then you never feel anxiety again.

Now comes exposure therapy, quite a tricky thing, but you have to do it. There is no escaping anxiety without exposure therapy, l promise you. I am no expert on exposure therapy but one thing l know is that once l face my triggers in the morning, l don't even think about them during the day, and if l do l remind myself "hold on, l just faced my fears earlier, l can do it again, so why the anxiety?"

Nobody said it would be easy, but you have to do it, you have to show your brain that it is perfectly fine to face the things you fear, the problem isn't the trigger itself, it's your reaction to it, and nobody has ever solved their anxiety by thinking about it.

So don't think about it, go and face it, the way l did it was simply googling images of my triggers, or playing games that contain my triggers, until it stopped bothering me. You don't want to look at the trigger and immediately flee however, you want to let anxiety come, and when it's too much you can stop, hell even go ahead and have an anxiety attack or panic attack, but remind yourself that what you just did makes you one badass motherfucker. You don't shower by thinking about how the water and soap would feel on your body.

Chapter 5 : The third month, slow and steady progress, 1% better everyday, negative thoughts

You spent and entire month working on yourself, and now instead of laying on the couch away from your bedroom where you had the anxiety attack, you lay in bed chilling, you meditate everyday, you walk everyday, you workout at least 3 times a week and you take your supplements.

But your anxiety is still there, except instead of spending most of your day in fear with the feeling of anxiety in your stomach, or chest or wherever you feel it, then going home and soothing yourself by watching a youtube video while the tv is on to avoid any form of thought and being terrified at the thought of your triggers, you feel anxiety from time to time, and wish it was gone already, the anxiety goes from a 10, to a 5.

And weirdly enough, you complain that it's still here. And you tell yourself "man l'm never gonna get better."

That's bullshit and you know it, but guess what we all have bad days. And some bad days will have you wondering if all of your healthy life choices even had any effect. That's okay, your brain is just being dumb that day, it's 1% better everyday, it takes time, anyone who has tried failed a few times.

It is normal to get into derealization, it is normal to feel anxiety when you do exposure therapy, it is normal to feel anxiety for no reason. Labor is to the body what difficulties are to the mind, exposure therapy IS badass, you are going into the forest to arm wrestle a fucking bear, take pride in that, and keep pushing.

This month also taught me the importance of allowing your brain to think of things without thinking about how scary it is. You thought of the trigger, and now you want to stop thinking about it and be scared of it? No. I will now observe the thought until it goes away on it's own. Fuck if l'm anxious about that, fuck if it scares me, l'm not gonna sit here and be like "nooo get it away from me", it's gonna have to leave on it's own.

I am not trying to escape anxiety like l did in my last 2 experiences with it, no, this time l will bend it to my will and overcome myself, even if it would be fine to never do even a single bit of exposure therapy again.

l could just not think about it and ignore it til it comes back. Or l could overcome it, even if it takes longer, even if it's harder.

My goal was never to do exposure therapy to make it bearable, it was to life in full harmony with what l used to fear.

Chapter 6 : The 4th month, positive affirmations, stoicism, facing more of your fears

Congrats on making it this far into the post btw, l've been in this month for only 2 weeks (dec 16 2024 is the day l write this), and l learned a lot about the mind.

The first thing l learned is that positive affirmations work in a way l never expected them to work, they don't just give you a quick self esteem boost, they stick to you for a long time, they shape your mindset.

I was getting better slowly but l thought why stop at curing my anxiety, why not change my way of thinking to become like the stoics? I started reading positive affirmations everyday (ask chatgpt for them it does an amazing job), and l started listening to stoic quotes while on my daily walks.

It changed so much, now if my mind says something negative, about myself or others, l make sure to fix the thinking pattern, if l fear something l dissect the fear until l get to it's root.

I have stopped thinking that others will think of me negatively and it pushed me to become a kinder, gentler person (username does NOT check out)

At first it felt stupid, like l was pretending, but now it feels like my authentic self, why the anger, why the negativity, why the hate? It's all meaningless, happiness is the best flow of life and l'll be damned if l let something as stupid as myself allow me to feel any other way.

I am proud of myself, l love myself, l am beautiful and l am getting better every single day, make sure you repeat those to yourself often throughout the day, because l am proud of anyone who suffers from anxiety and keeps on living.

TL;DR Run every 2 days, walk everyday, exposure therapy, take vitamins and supplements (fish oil and magnesium my beloved), positive affirmations and facing fears rather than pushing the thought away like a scaredy cat.

AMA also don't check my page l draw porn (unless l'm on the wrong account oops)