A Panic Away member visited the forum again after a long time of being absent. In 2012, she  described herself as a  ‘wreck’, someone who was ‘afraid of her own shadow’. It’s 2014, and the reason she has not been on the forum is because she has been busy enjoying life and experiencing new things. I hope reading stories such as this will give some of you hope and encouragement. Know that you do not have to live your life as a ‘wreck’ any longer. 

‘Just dropping in to say hello. For those of you who don’t know me, I was a wreck back in March 2012. I changed from a confident person to being afraid of my own shadow overnight. I think you could safely say I feared everything. I wasn’t really plagued by panic attacks as once I’d done the 21 second count down once, I knew there was nothing to be afraid of. The places my brain took me though, is another story altogether and I think I had about every anxious thought you could have and if I didn’t already have it, I soon added it to my endless list of ‘what ifs’ when reading about other people’s thoughts!

This forum came along just at the right time for me and I cannot thank Panic Away and the Forum enough for giving me the support I needed to stop, take check of myself and learn to retrain my brain. First and foremost, just give up the fight! Don’t expect anxiety to just up and go. There is a process which has to be followed where you learn to live along side anxiety and make a friendship with it. I can remember being attached to the forum with people like Choose and Mary, GI Jim, Todd and a couple of other people encouraging me at all times  and I couldn’t imagine ever being one of those people who suddenly popped up and said ‘Hi, I’ve not been on the forum for a while because I’ve been busy leading my life’.  Well, today that is just exactly what has happened. I will never, ever forget just how wretched I felt in March 2012 and the journey I took to become just ‘me’ again. Not ‘me with anxiety’ or me ‘slowly recovering from anxiety’ just plain and simply ‘me’.  Anxiety is in all of us and every now and again I might get that warm glow or that fleeting thought, which I recognise, and I just say ‘I’m fine, thanks, nothing to worry about here’.

I remember also wondering if people did really get better,  or was this just a lie. Well, it is true. You do get better, you do live your life with a strength you didn’t have before.  For those of you who don’t know me, and think that I probably can’t have been that bad, back track through my posts and you’ll see the journey I have taken.

I pop back here to see if there is anyone I can help, because I know just how lonely and terribly frightening anxiety can feel.  To everyone, just hang in there and believe in yourself. Make friends with anxiety and go forth together. Much love to you all.  Mrs Txxx