By Craig, No Panic volunteer
This is the third in our series looking at the importance of psychoeducation in any anxiety recovery journey. We’ve already had a look at the benefits of understanding more about the anxiety state and the different sources available to help you do that. In this blog, we want to look at balancing a healthy drive to understand, against an anxiety triggered need to find cures and reassurance.
When it comes to psychoeducation, you may find two different schools of thought out there. Some people may tell you to stop pouring over all the details, let it be and move on. However, for most of us, trying to live with the daily symptoms and challenges without understanding what’s going on, can leave us even more perplexed and frightened. That’s why a growing body of professionals and individuals will recommend the value of understanding what is going on with your heightened anxiety state.
As I started to build my own understanding of anxiety disorder, I found real comfort in understanding that I wasn’t really losing my mind, or that I wasn’t in any related danger of suddenly dying. However, whenever my anxiety lasted for any period, I started to fall into the trap of assuming I must have failed to learn all I needed to and that was why the anxiety was still there. It’s so common for your anxious reaction to trigger a ‘need to fix it’ or to ‘need to find the magic answers’, but by now, I am pretty sure you’ll have been seeing that there is no magic solution out there – if there were, we’d all be using it.
The truth with anxiety is that it usually takes patience, courage, and perseverance. Psychoeducation’s role there is not to eliminate the anxiety, but to help with the patience and perseverance. In understanding how anxiety works, you can learn that there is a natural process going on and with the right perseverance using relaxation, exercise, diet, and other good lifestyle habits, you will see your anxiety drop over time, we’ve seen this so many times.
But how do you know whether you are using psychoeducation as a useful tool to help you understand and be patient, or whether you are furiously seeking out that magic bullet? Well, in my experience I am afraid it is a fine line, but there are usually a couple of tell-tale signs, ask yourself:
- ‘Am I reading/listening to things I already know?’ Sometimes you will read variations of the same thing in hope that this time it will ‘go in’ or you’ll get it right. This is a classic sign of ‘reassurance’. Reassurance is when you have to be told something you already know because you don’t trust yourself..
- ‘Am I hoping that this article will tell me how to fix it?’ There is lots of good advice out there and lots of techniques and practices that are really good for you, but if you sense you are looking for a magic fix, stop.. think… ask yourself if you are really going to find that when 20% of the global population has an anxiety condition… wouldn’t they already be rolling that magic out?
Psychoeducation is such a powerful tool on your recovery path, but it is always important to check your motivations and challenge yourself if you notice you are becoming obsessed with reassurance seeking and magic fix finding.
Hopefully this short series on psychoeducation has given you something to think about and hopefully a few new resources to consider that you might try using. A reminder that the no panic website is a great source for learning more about Anxiety and ways to help improve your current situation… head to our Resources section for lots of pages on different specific anxiety conditions and topics.
