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Treating Anxiety

Anxiety, just like anything else in life, has a certain system or formula that will help to reduce its impact in one's life. Treating anxiety, unfortunately, is not one of those skills that is taught in school at any level, except perhaps to aspiring therapists and counselors. Fortunately, there are many people who have found the proper formula for treating anxiety that works for them. And, one of the unusual things about treating anxiety or any other mental health condition, is that the formula, unlike the mathematical kind, can change depending upon the individual.

The Anxiety Support Network's main goal is to present as many options to people as is humanly possible such that each and every person who comes across it can find a formula that works for them. Ways of treating anxiety include dieting (see ASN’s Tips for Anxiety-Friendly Diet), regular exercise (see ASN’s Anxiety & Exercise), accepting anxiety's presence (see ASN’s Accepting Anxiety), regular counseling (see ASN’s What to Expect from Counseling), medication (see ASN’s Anxiety Medication – Don’t Believe the Hype! and Further Thoughts on Medication) and last, but certainly not least, use of a supportive social network (see ASN’s Supportive Friends).

The interesting thing about treating anxiety is that parts of the formula might not even be used at all. For example, medication does not work the same way in each and every person at the same time; people are different, and as such, respond to medication in different ways. For one person, medication might be a large slice of the pie used in treating anxiety, while for another person, medication might not be used at all. Also, one person might have a very supportive social network composed of many close friends and family who want to see that person be successful when treating anxiety, while conversely, another person might have no friends and no family who are willing to understand and work on treating anxiety.

However, it does seem that some parts of the pie are almost essential to treating anxiety. People can pick and choose the different options and mix and match those options as they see fit, however, skipping regular exercise would seem to leave an extensive amount of anxiety left to run through a person's body, rather than being burnt off. Exercise, counseling, use of a supportive social network, and acceptance of anxiety's presence all seem to be parts of the pie that must be included when treating anxiety. To not use these parts of the pie only seems to harm a person's recovery.

Medication seems to be unique in that it is the one part of the pie that can actually do more harm than good. In an indirect manner, people sometimes take medication thinking that they will suddenly be relaxed and know what to do or say in all situations that used to baffle them in the past. However, the truth is that medication tends to reduce one's anxiety in the short-term, while it possibly will stop working entirely, or worse yet, have side effects that do more harm than good.

In sum, treating anxiety is a tricky task to master, and it is always a good idea to bounce ideas off of other trusted friends and family when working through this difficulty in one's life. The key to treating anxiety that one should keep in mind is that the formula is different for each and every person, and what works for one person might not work for the next. Therefore, it is up to the person in recovery to figure out what does and does not work for him or her when treating anxiety. Good luck to all anxiety sufferers as they continue to work on treating their anxiety!

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