Hey Peace2021,
Thanks for your contribution. On one hand anxiety can be crippling at times and then on the other sometimes I feel it can motivate us to achieve things which is the paradox of suffering from GAD. It's very understandable that after experiencing it for so long you may sometimes feel like giving up, although perhaps you could try slightly re-framing this. Maybe next time you feel that your anxiety is rearing it's head you could find a quiet place and just sit with it, honour it, welcome it into your mind. Offer it a cup of metaphorical tea. What we resist, persists they say and sometimes if we're in a big of a tug of war with our anxieties it can feel like they're getting stronger. If we just allow ourselves 20 mins a day of letting the anxiety do whatever it wants internally and just observe it without judgement it may start to lose its hold on us. Another good tip someone has given me is to actually give a human name to the anxious thoughts, let's call them 'Frank'. Instead of seeing the anxiety as inseparable from yourself start to image that Frank is talking to you again, have an internal conversation with him and see if you can try to understand why he is bothering you, what does he need? What is he trying to draw your attention to? There is a great book I read, an autobiography about a women who was a singer and for most of her life she was consumed with her anxiety. After applying this technique which she called "F off Frank" she was able to start to de-personalise the anxious thoughts to the point where she was no longer letting them get in the way of her dreams, she eventually became a famous singer/ song writer and used her experiences of anxiety as material for her music. Hope this helps!
