I didn’t know what to expect when I first started therapy. I just knew that I felt bad and I was hoping that my therapist would teach me how to make it all go away or give me medication that would make me better.
That’s not how it went at all.
Instead, it was a lot of hard work that I wasn’t prepared for. There was no magic pill that was going to take away my anxiety. I had to come to terms with the fact that this was something I had to live with for the rest of my life and that’s okay. Because me having anxiety didn’t mean there was something wrong with me. It just meant I had to learn how my mind worked. I had to learn how to identify triggers and how anxiety affected my relationships with others.
Nine years later, while I do have moments of intense anxiety and will have the occasional anxiety attack, I still use the techniques I learned to help me through it. I’m glad there was no magic pill to take away my anxiety; therapy gave me the opportunity to learn more about myself.
–Elizabeth P .
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