It can be confusing and frustrating. All around you, you see others attending meetings, luncheons, study groups, parties, and activities. "Everyone" seems able and willing to do so. But for you, the mere thought is horrifying. So what's up? Are you "simply" shy? Is it something more than that? The answer is actually quite personal.

It can be so disheartening to suffer a setback after moving forward in anxiety recovery for so long. Your anxiety and/or panic were once so intense and they got in the way of your ability to fully live your life the way you wanted to live it. You wanted more for yourself, so you worked your way past the obstacles and you were doing great. But then something happened to make anxiety flare up again, and it felt like you went back to square one, no longer moving forward in anxiety recovery at all. Disheartening indeed.

When you live with anxiety, it's frustrating to be told that it's "all in your head." Great news: you can begin to let go of this maddening annoyance. Anxiety isn't "in your head." Why? Because it is in your head. Literally. Anxiety is in your brain.

The idea that fear and anxiety are tightly woven together is widely accepted by mental health professionals. I agree, and you might too. But is anxiety only the fear of fear itself?

Have you ever experienced a restlessness that goes beyond restlessness? Perhaps you've felt at times as though you were going to explode out of your own skin. Maybe your anxiety has sometimes completely prevented you from relaxing no matter what you do to bring a sense of tranquillity. When calming activities agitate rather than soothe, do the opposite: take action, repetitively.

If given a choice, would you rather accept yourself with your anxiety or kick anxiety to the curb and simply accept yourself? Silly question, right? The idea of immediately ridding ourselves of anxiety, is extremely appealing. But imagine for a moment what it would be like to embrace your anxiety. What if you could accept yourself with anxiety and still feel the anxiety lessen?

Anxiety, as you are likely very aware, is about worry. Not just worry, but intense, consuming worry. It can take over our minds, causing our thoughts to race anxiously from one to the next. It can be miserable, keeping us up late into the night or consuming our days. We toss, turn, sweat, fret, and think, think, and think. Ironically, the thinking often contains the key to overcoming anxiety. You see, focusing your thinking, or mindfulness, can calm anxious thoughts.

The recommended self-help strategies for coping with anxiety, particularly to conquer performance anxiety before big meetings and public speaking, seems to be "Stay calm."  However, a recent study suggests that getting excited, the exact opposite of remaining calm, may be more effective at conquering performance anxiety.

Excessive worry doesn't feel good. Both our bodies and our minds experience it in often painful ways. Anxiety frequently causes the mind to fret over a problem. When we do that, we’re thinking about the problem itself rather than a solution for it, and the problem can become quite a monster. Our thoughts have run away with it and now blow it out of proportion, turning metaphorical little mole hills into gigantic mountains. Problems seem like catastrophes.

Panic attacks are brief episodes of very intense physical and emotional symptoms that can make someone afraid that he or she is losing control or even dying.  In panic disorder, they seem to come out of nowhere, and this, people say, is often worse the the panic attack itself.