Change How You Think About Anxiety

Life Issues

Change How You Think About AnxietyStruggling with anxiety? If a person feels worried and stressed, they will often reach for food, alcohol, porn, drugs, shopping, or something else to help soothe and calm them. If left unchecked, anxiety can make someone turn to addiction to cope.

But there is a tool called a thought record that can reduce anxiety. A thought record can help people identify automatic negative thoughts and check to see if their thinking falls into one of the many distortions that increase stress, such as catastrophizing. How it works is that a person will write down an alternative balanced thought which states the truth.

For example, let’s say a person thinks that if they try to go to a Life Recovery Group to connect with others, it will be terrible. This would be an example of catastrophizing because they’ve already determined how something will be a disaster beforehand. (more…)

Do This to Overcome Anxiety and Addiction

Addiction/Recovery

Do This to Overcome Anxiety and AddictionWhat’s the key to overcoming addiction and anxiety? Acceptance! Let’s say someone is trying to self-medicate from anxiety using drugs, alcohol, or something else. They must accept that addiction is not the answer for their anxiety and get into recovery. Dr. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, put it this way, “Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.”

Once in recovery, an individual must also accept anxiety and learn how to deal with it in healthy ways. If not, fear will destroy their efforts to recover completely, and they’re likely to relapse. Scripture confirms that anxiety can wreak havoc when it says, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up” (Proverbs 12:25, NIV).

Anxiety can be such a burden that it’ll cause a person to do anything to find relief. One central fear is that of the unknown. (more…)