Recovery tip- Many of our desires are about wanting not to feel things. If you experience panic attacks, you may identify particular situations that make you very anxious and bring up an attack. For example: Going into crowded busy places, public speaking, traveling in a car or plane, hospitals etc. but research shows that for many people, it’s not the situation that they’re actually scared of but the experience of having a panic attack. That desire to avoid the experience leads to the person checking, coping or controlling to make sure it’s not happening. Which increases their chances of judging something internal or external as a sign that it is happening, which scares them and leads to more attempts of controlling, coping or checking, which leads to it actually happening. Keep in mind, if you want to get rid of anxiety and intrusive thoughts or sensations more than anything in this world, your brain will give you many things to feel anxious about so you can try to get rid of that feeling and get what you want more than anything else in the world. Your brain is just trying to help you. It’s helpful to treat your brain like a toddler or a puppy. Toddlers and puppies react to many things. Toddlers cry when they don’t get a cookie, they may think it’s the end of the world. Puppies bark at random noises or whine if they don’t think they’re getting enough attention or enough treats! Your brain operates similarly. Your brain is an uncertainty barometer, always looking out for you. You don’t control the random thoughts or emotions your brain throws up at random moments, but you control your actions. Be the adult to your brain. Give your brain thanks for always being there for you and watching out for you. But you’re not going to perform compulsions and react to those random thoughts and emotions. An urge, desire, thought or sensation can be there as you take a step towards what actually matters to you!

@Macyyy729 Hey! I’m still here. I’m happy to hear you’ve been doing well! I’ve struggled with relapse before, and I have some pretty good advice for you. About two years ago I was doing very well with my mental health (at least I thought I was) my anxiety level was what I would call “normal” and I was functioning throughout the day. But, what I didn’t notice was; I was still doing certain things in my life that involved checking, controlling and coping with different aspects in my life. So for example: I had major anxiety and intrusive thoughts around my breathing. I went to workout and ended up swimming at the gym. After I got done swimming, I had a thought of, “what if I my brain becomes confused of when to breath? What if I end up holding my breath in my sleep? What if my brain becomes confused when I’m swimming and tries to take a full breath when I’m under water?” Immediately I started becoming panicky and had a panic attack. “I thought I was on the right track! Why am I having these intrusive thoughts!?” I went back to the basics. I said- “Ok, I want to experience this anxiety. It’s fine to have anxiety. It’s fine to experience any feeling. I still enjoy swimming, and it’s something that is positive in my life, so I want to continue doing that, no matter what feeling, thought or sensation I experience. So, now that this is understood, I need to know if I’m “training” my brain to check, control and cope in my everyday life. Low and behold, I definitely was doing things in my life that involved checking, controlling and coping. I would make a post on FB or Reddit in the mornings, and I didn’t think it was the best post, so I would constantly check on that post to see if it offended anyone. I would check to see if I got X many FB likes. I would then get a little anxious when I would imagine (aka-rumination) others getting upset with me about those posts. I would then head off to work and ruminate in the car and think about what conversations to talk about to co-workers. I would then check to see if my boss was in a good mood by sending an email or text, before I said hello and striking up a conversation. I had a minor problem with one tooth, and I know I need to go to the dentist to get it checked out, but I hate going to the dentist.. so I “coped” and tried googling all day about remedies on natural ways to cure my tooth ache. It was also raining outside that day, and I kept asking it to stop raining, because I had errands to run outside. Almost as if I could “control” the weather. As you can see, I was doing many things like; checking, controlling and coping ALL day leading up to my panic attack after the swimming session. What I quickly learned was- How can I expect my brain to learn how to accept my breathing thought and the anxiety, when I’m doing all those compulsions all day long? It’s simply not fair to my brain. Your brain is very logical and reasonable. If you’re doing compulsions all day long, and then when something difficult comes up, your brain is going to be logical, and helpful by spiking your anxiety and telling you to either “check, control or cope with this thought, feeling or sensation now, because that’s what you have taught me all day long to do!” So my advice would be to take a good look at what you’re doing all day. And it really starts in the morning. Are you doing things that positively effect your mental health, like getting out of bed when your alarm goes off, brushing your teeth, drinking a glass of water. Or are you laying in bed when your alarm goes off and your on your phone on social media or ruminating about the day? 😊