Author and Psychotherapist, Joshua Fletcher is a leading voice on anxiety disorders across the globe. Based in the UK, he is the founder of the School of anxiety, a hub for anxiety sufferers to refer to when looking for more information on their symptoms. Here he lists three of the most common mistakes anxiety sufferers make:
- They try to fix themselves. Anxiety occurs when the body’s threat response malfunctions and continues to trigger unnecessarily. The biggest mistake is for people to assume that they are broken in some way and to spend time ruminating, trying to fix themselves, teaching their brain that anxiety is something to fear
- They try to self-medicate without seeking input from a professional. Rather than speaking to their doctor or seeking assistance from a psychotherapist or other professional, anxiety suffers can often turn to alcohol or drugs to treat their symptoms in the short-term, patching over their symptoms rather than looking for a cure.
- Anxiety suffers rarely speak out about their experiences. Although it has improved in recent years, there is still a stigma that surrounds suffering with anxiety, especially in the workplace. By not joining in on the conversation around anxiety, the pressure to hide what they perceive to be shameful, only increases. There is no shame to be had in suffering anxiety at any level and feeling that a judgement will be made when talking about it, only acts to feed this misplaced stigma.
You can find out more at www.schoolofanxiety.com.
