The Anxiety Support Network
Getting better one step at a time
   Home      Articles      Podcasts      About      Contact     

A Visual Depiction of Anxiety Recovery

E-mail this page to a friend

Akin to the article Two Steps Forward, One Step Back is this article. I decided to write this article that delves into anxiety recovery from a visual perspective because some people learn with words, while others learn visually. There are also some other anxiety recovery concepts, which I can demonstrate that may be of value to some of those that read.

In the article Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, the anxiety recovery process is basically described as one where the person makes a few steps of forward progress, and then goes backwards into some of his or her old behaviors. This is a great way of describing the process via words, however, there are some important concepts missing from the picture. The first concept to note is what happens during "Time 1." Time 1 is when somebody is fairly new to the anxiety recovery process and starts off with a bang. Everything seems to be going well. Social anxiety is reducing. That person may be able to start a few conversations here and there, or he or she may be able to defend themselves and be assertive on occasions where that was not possible before. Time 1 is great for people and the sky seems to be the limit. However, the reality is that even though great progress has been made, there is still plenty of progress that is yet to occur, and that is indicated by the overall upward trend of the green line. This person has the capacity to become much more relaxed and much less anxious, but he or she is as yet unable to see that because the world right now seem so great.

Now, examine "Time 2." During Time 2, the person in question has things going well, but then the person's growth is suddenly stunted and he or she begins to fall back into old patterns of thinking and acting. Whereas during Time 1 this person suddenly was feeling comfortable in situations that were previously very stressful, and this person was also able to be assertive in a few situations, now this person finds that he or she is in the exact same situations but seems to have lost his or her newfound confidence.

The good news for the person who falls into such a trap is two-fold. The first piece of good news is that it is completely natural for all human beings undergoing a planned change process to fall back into their old behaviors from time to time. It is just the way that people work and it is to be expected of everyone during the social anxiety recovery process! The second piece of good news is that even though there is some struggle right now, if this person continues to take the necessary risks in order to grow, then there is plenty of future growth that will occur, as is indicated by everything to the right of Time 2.

The final thing that is important to notice is that even though there are multiple dips in the overall growth and development of each anxiety sufferer, the overall trend of each person's growth is upward, as is indicated by the green line. The beginning of the line at the farthest left point is much lower than the ending of the line at the farthest right point, indicating overall progress.

In any case, I hope that the readers of this article have understood the main points it attempted to demonstrate. There are bumps in every person’s recovery and times where it seems like no progress is being made, which is indicated by the dips. But, even though it seems like the end of the road and that things are going in the wrong direction, in actuality it is just a part of life, and if this person keeps doing what he or she needs to in order to get better, regardless of how he or she is feeling at that point, then the overall trend of his or her anxiety recovery will be upward.

One helpful thing to keep in mind is that when things are going particularly well or particularly poorly, it is important to take a personal inventory of what things were like six months or a year ago. When a person thinks back to six months ago, he or she will realize that there are some things which are about as hard now as they were then, but also many other things that are much easier now than they were then. When a person thinks back to a year ago, he or she will look back and wonder who it is that he or she was at that time and may even laugh at the things that made him or her afraid then. The point is that reflecting and thinking about things over a longer term reveals to most individuals (who look at it in a positive way) that they have made great progress.

Wow, that article was a lot shorter than I thought it would be – I guess a picture is worth a thousand words after all! Hopefully it helps you!



Bookmark and Share



Free Anxiety Support Network Newsletter Sign up for the free Anxiety Support Network Newsletter which will help you to achieve higher and new levels of living. Improve your mental wellness, make new friendships, find new romantic relationships, enjoy a fulfilling career, and improve your health! Also, receive the 2008-2009 Article E-book for FREE!

Note: You can easily unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time by following the link at the bottom of the newsletter e-mail or by following this link (clicking the link will open a new window).




Overcoming Anxiety - Victim Reveals His Story

The Anxiety Support Network 2011
Free Newsletter  |  Links  |  Privacy Statement  |  Disclaimer