Twelve Lies Anxiety Tells You

Anxiety lies to you. It tells you lies in order to bully you, control you. A common complaint among people living with one or more anxiety disorders is that they can’t get the racing thoughts of anxiety out of their head. A reason for this is that anxiety, seemingly without stopping, feeds lies directly into your brain. When we’re told something over and over and over again, we start to believe it. By telling you certain lies, anxiety strengthens itself so it can keep a hold on you and your life. See if you recognize any of these twelve common lies anxiety tells.

Twelve Lies Anxiety Constantly Tells You

1. The past continues today. All of those worries and mistakes of the past? They’re not really over. They’ll never go away, and you’ll suffer the consequences every day for the rest of your life.
2. The future is happening now. The fears you have about what might happen and the what-if scenarios that plague you are justified.
3. Worrying changes things. The more you think about something and the more you fret and ruminate, the more control you’ll have. So please, worry and agonize.
4. You’re not good enough. You never have been good enough, and you never will be. Look around you. See all those people? They’re better than you.
5. Another thing about all those people: they’re judging you. You know you’re inferior, and they know it, too (Anxiety Says Everyone Hates Me).
6. Thinking and worrying at night is a great way to problem solve. Besides, you don’t really need to sleep because you’re not all that important during the day (The [Dysfunctional] Relationship Between Sleep And Anxiety).
7. You don’t deserve to speak up. Other people are smarter, better, and more in charge.
8. You’re stupid. You say the wrong things. You ruin stuff.
9. You can’t ask for things or make even simple requests because you’ll bother people.
10. If you have panic attacks, be afraid of them. They’re dangerous, and they mean you’re weak, pathetic.
11. You want it? No matter what it is, be it friendship, love, a raise, a job, new equipment for sports or a hobby, you can’t have it. You don’t deserve it. You’re taking away from someone else. It might lead to problems. So don’t bother.
12. You’re going crazy. You’re losing your mind.

Recognize the Lies That Anxiety Tells You

By telling you lies, anxiety works its way deep inside your brain and takes hold until you begin to believe the lies. They begin to seem like the truth. The lies are often so numerous, far beyond these twelve examples, and so vicious that it can be hard to recognize them for what they are: lies that anxiety tells you.

Recognizing what anxiety is saying and identifying the statements as lies is an important step in removing anxiety from your life. The next step is to challenge the lies, and next week’s article will do exactly that.

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from Anxiety-Schmanxiety Blog http://ift.tt/1qJ5zol