Friday, May 29, 2009

A proactive approach to anxiety

This week I did not attend a Recovery meeting because it was canceled due to the Memorial Day holiday. I was a bit disappointed, as I like the fellowship of being around people who understand me and my fears. So this week I’ve spent a lot of time reading Mental Health Through Will-Training (the Recovery “bible”).

This got me thinking about the importance of taking a proactive approach to fear and anxiety problems. We suffer for so long that when we find moments of relief, the last thing we want to do is read about how to get better (See my Shelfari shelf on this page) or talk to people about our issues. But ironically that is indeed what we need to do.

I’m not saying we should analyze our problems. In fact, a Recovery principle is that “to talk it up is to work it up.” But we do need to make our mental health our top priority (another Recovery principle [this one more abstract]: Mental health is a business, not a game). And I’m finding that socializing with people like me is an important way to boost my confidence in my ability to get better.

5 comments:

Blogger with Ocd said...

I would love to be able to train my will! It's something a lot of would benefit from.

Keep us posted on how the book goes! I'll look for it.

www.itsmewithocd.blogspot.com

Blogger with Ocd said...

I forgot to say--I have friends who go to recovery. I have not tried it, though.

Doug said...

Definitely check out Recovery! You'll be amazed how helpful it is!

Syzygy said...

Doug - just keep attending meetings. As a long time group leader in Recovery I have seen amazing changes in people's personality and their ability to deal with the day to day problems we all face. I will try to make it down to Jerry's meeting sometime so we can meet face to face.

Doug said...

Thanks, Syzygy. I'm really enjoying attending!