Once anxiety takes hold, it does not typically leave us that easily. We provide easy to implement, effective and clear tips on how to overcome anxiety. There is much you can do to overcome anxiety attacks, anxiety when speaking, and anxiety with anything you are trying to do. Learn this free, step-by-step process now.

Do you know people who always have to other people for their opinion before making a decision? Or put another way: people who cannot seem to think for themselves? Many people look to others for the solution to getting through a panic attack.
This tendency of being passive can often be linked to anxiety. I’m not condemning. I’m speaking from my own experience of having this tendency.

Many people who come down with anxiety and panic attacks can get trapped in this pattern of behaviour. I did. It may have started over time by them becoming very passive and mistakenly thinking it takes another person to solve their problems.

Any follow through “homework” they might be assigned in sessions doesn’t get done. Instead they wait until their next session with a therapist before trying to work out a personal challenge. Then upon attending their appointment they feel “let down” because the problem isn’t solved. In a sense they have given control of their emotions and their recovery to someone else. (To be clear: I’m not suggesting the other professionals and people in your life don’t matter. I’m just saying that you are ultimately in charge.) Again my intention is not to be critical but to make you consider whether or not this applies to you? If so there is much that can be done.

I like to consider what the Canadian Mental Health Association has to say when I’m thinking about “how to overcome anxiety”:

You need to be an active member of your mental health team. Take a proactive role in your well-being and make lifestyle choices that are mindful and healthy.

I would add that being a director of your own life is not only very empowering, but it’s required. Required because if you’re passive in life you will tend to dither with decisions and such vacillation causes stress which can contribute and worsen anxiety and panic attacks.

So the alternative to being passive and “getting through a panic attack” — which is a term many have used – is commitment in a specific direction. The wonderful thing is that commitment can actually be freeing, rather than constraining. At first you might feel that commitment makes you limited but this is not the case. If you think about this practically, if no one ever made any commitments then how would anything in the world ever get done?

Here are some suggestions for not only getting though a panic attack but moreover taking personal responsibility for the overall plan of better and healthier choices.

1. Looking at an overall global plan: Sit down with a pen and paper – or any other device you use to document things, and really brainstorm. Brainstorm all the ways you can assist with your anxiety (wink, wink, nudge, nudge much has been discussed in this website — or my free newsletter).

2. Ensure that your plan involves having a variety of things in your life. For example, when you think of the word “health”, health doesn’t refer to physical health only, but emotional, financial, spiritual, physical, etc. So variety of these things in your life is important.

3. You should now have a pretty good list of things you can begin doing – an overall strategy. So the final step is to divide the global plan into manageable chunks. This means actual concrete steps that make sense. But these steps need to be set up in a realistic manner for you.


Reference (Getting through a Panic Attack)

Canadian Mental Health Association. Phobias and Panic Disorders. Retrieved May 25, 2013, from:
http://www.cmha.ca/mental_health/phobias-and-panic-disorders/#.UaEszHy9KSM DVD