You Are Not Defined By Your Anxiety

Friends. I’m here to tell you something you may or may not know, but you need to know and you need to know right now. You ready?

Your anxiety doesn’t define you.

You are not your anxiety. You’re not your depression. You are not your mental health issues.

Quit saying you are. Quit telling yourself that because you have anxiety or depression or whatever that you can’t do A, B, C, or D.

Yes, you can! Is it hard?! Yes.

Will you have days you struggle? Yes.

Days you just want to scream at God and be like, “Bro, really?!” Yes!

Quit telling yourself that God didn’t make you worthy. Because you are.

Maybe this isn’t something you struggle with, but for me, I struggled with it really bad. Gosh, I still struggle, but there is something I realized and I want you to realize too.

You Ready To Hear It?

My friend, you are a child of God. You are of a royal priesthood. You are meant to live a life that is happy, healthy, and all around amazing.

Stop saying you are anything less.

You see, throughout this journey with mental health, I keep finding myself and many others saying “Well, I have anxiety so I can’t….” “I have anxiety so I can’t drive in bad conditions. I have anxiety so I can’t go talk to this person…etc. “Well, I have anxiety so I can’t….” Put in your own limiting belief.

No, no, and no.

You CAN!

You just CHOOSE NOT TO!

Please, hold those tomatoes. Hear me out. The first time I was told that, by my husband no less, right after a panic attack. I was livid. Honestly, I believe I said some very rude things with a very nasty face. I mean, who does he think he is sitting here telling me I chose to have an attack. I chose to have this happen. Honestly, I didn’t listen. We went months and I mean months of him in his “I should have been a lawyer, instead of a teacher’s voice.” telling me, I was choosing to do this to myself.

How many times, I wonder, did he think about just never saying anything and just letting me be? Just letting me sit in my little pity party. I mean it would have been easier for him. Easier to just walk away and go watch football. Yet, thankfully, he was persistent and finally after the umpteenth time of him saying it. I got it.

You see, I chose to allow events in my life lead me to my attacks. To not work out in order to up my endorphins, to eat sugar, and to not do my techniques to calm myself before my anxiety got too out of control.

I allowed that. I didn’t take the time to figure out my triggers so I could notice when my anxiety was getting out of hand. And when I did start to get anxious, I didn’t do the techniques I learned to help them go away. If you are wanting to find a quick technique, check out my post on how to calm your anxiety quickly.

Yet, I found that while I allowed events to go one way I can also choose for them to go another way.

I can choose to not let anxiety define my life.

3 Ways to Combat Your Anxious Thoughts

Every time I find myself saying, I can’t because of anxiety… I replace it with a positive thought. For example, I can because God’s got me. I can because I already have this already planned out. People are here to help me…etc. Find what works for you! At first, it’s hard, you have to train your mind to replace that thought and you’ll find yourself thinking this is silly, yet I promise it works!

Find someone to help you. For example, I use my husband. Whenever I say out loud, “I can’t…I’m too anxious..” He helps remind me to change my thought and reminds me I can do anything. Who can that be for you? A coworker, a friend, a family member or a partner?

Lastly, change your self-talk. Are you telling yourself you are worthy and can handle anything with the grace of God? Or have you already counted yourself out because you don’t believe you have it in you? If you struggle with self-talk, check out this book: What You Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shed Helmstetter. Honestly, I didn’t realize how massive your self-talk helped shape your outlook on life until this book. Game changer in my opinion!

I pray that you one day realize that you are created for more. You are more capable that you may even realize. God has something extraordinary planned for you. Just think of the message and testimony you’ll be able to tell once you take control of your mental health. How cool! Finally, please always remember that people are out there to help you, to make sure you succeed, you need only ask. In the words of Dumbledore himself…

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” -Dumbledore

Now, go rock today, because girl you are capable and deserve it!

Although I’ve lived with mental illness my whole life, I am not a medical professional. You can find a therapist anywhere in the United States here. This post contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.