Anxiety is Not a Feeling

November 19, 2023

 

I have had this theory for many years now that anxiety is not a feeling. What’s behind it are real feelings, scary feelings, overwhelming feelings, painful feelings, that for one reason or another we’re incapable or we’re not wanting to face, confront, do the work to heal from them.

Anxiety is something that many of us, and I’m included, have had to deal with over the years. And I’ve felt that, ‘well I can deal with this anxiety, this really difficult thing to put my finger on.’ And there are ways of dealing with anxiety. You can take medication, you can drink, do drugs, go to porn, to numb it out. But what would happen if you were able to identify the true feelings that are coming up for you, which are forcing you to go to anxiety just to cope? What would it be like to have the courage and the commitment and the support to say, ‘you know what, I’m gonna look at these feelings directly, and I’m gonna allow them to heal or move on, and not allow myself to live with this anxiety day in and day out.’

If this sounds like something you might want to think about, I hope it helps. It certainly has helped me throughout the years.

Wayne Levine
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