Hey y’all I am struggling a bit with the concept of sitting with anxiety - what is the difference between sitting with anxiety and actually just avoiding taking responsibility for self care / coping? Any thoughts would be helpful
Compulsions = action taken in attempt to escape emotional distress; usually destructive, unhealthy, and/or perpetuate future compulsions (rituals, substances, etc.) Self Care = non reactive, health based action; done as general practice or skill based endeavor; not done as a bandaid for distress (meditation, journaling, exercise, etc.) “Sitting with anxiety” is just a simplistic way of saying recognize that your body’s threat response is activated and then do not do anything to try and make it stop. It will stop and your allowing it to do that on its own is how you teach it that it sounded the alarm in error. If you meditate only when you’re in an OCD spike then it’s a compulsion. But if you do it frequently as a mindfulness exercise, regardless of whether OCD is flaring up, then it’s not compulsive. Similarly, if you have a drink at a social gathering that doesn’t mean you’re compulsing, but if you reach for the bottle when your OCD kicks in…you get it. That’s why awareness practices are helpful. They help you understand why it is that you do the things you do and teach you how to investigate your internal guiding forces. If the end goal is to teach yourself that the thoughts you’re having and the emotions you feel as a result will pass without your taking action to enforce safety or escape them, your in the clear. Gotta get super honest with yourself on identifying compulsions. Hope this helps. Good luck!
The concept of "sitting" with anxiety simply means noticing how the anxiety feels in your body without adding any sort of story or analysis to it. It's really the opposite of avoidance. When you sit with anxiety, you aren't fighting it, you're feeling it. I'd even argue that you can consider that self-care. Of course, sometimes the anxiety is so overwhelming that it's extremely difficult to sit with it. That's when you may want to do some self-soothing to better cope. The long-term goal is to be able to sit with the uncomfortable feelings of anxiety until they dissipate on their own. The more you practice, the easier it becomes.
I know that I can sit with the discomfort and still function in the deepest of symptoms.
I’ve seen people mention sitting with the anxiety and not trying to solve your thoughts. What does this do/help in the long run?
What do you do to "sit" with the thoughts? Struggling with it a bit.
Could someone who’s had success with their treatment explain how it’s supposed to feel when you start accepting the presence of the thought and sitting with the anxiety?
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