"ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE ANXIOUS"
Now to me this sounds like a very odd concept and I do not yet understand how this is meant to help people feel less anxious because it's not like overcoming an addiction it's an illness. I may have a slight understanding on what this psychologist is trying to get across because from their teachings they probably thinking of this as a mind trick. By telling yourself you are anxious and that you accept this you will ultimately feel less anxious due to your acceptance as you won't be panicking about having anxiety.
However after day 1 I have found this is not the case for me. I feel anxious about things in general and not about having anxiety itself and because I have panic disorder this means my anxiety can come out of nowhere for no reason and cause a panic attack. After having a panic attack today I have found that accepting I am anxious did not reduce the symptoms and my panic attacks just continued as it wanted. This does not mean it is an ineffective method as obviously I have to test this on more than one occasion.
I did feel anxious about going to work the next day and I think that this method may have some impact upon when you are feeling anxious about things that are going to happen. I told myself that I am an anxious person and I always feel this way about situations such as this one but 99% of the time it turns out fine. This temporarily calmed me down and put myself at ease until I started thinking about the situation again as you will usually do with anxiety.
After the first day of experiments I am willing to give the method a chance and see where it takes me.
Thank you for reading and I hope this has been helpful!
