The Endless Loop of Anxiety Management
When anxiety becomes a dominating force in life, consuming energy and restricting choices, the instinctual response is often to engage in struggle. Individuals feel compelled to eliminate, suppress, or control the uncomfortable internal experiences—the racing heart, the worried thoughts, or the painful memories—that constitute their symptoms. This approach, focusing intently on managing or reducing distress, is sometimes reinforced by cultural messages suggesting that a vital life is only possible once suffering is eliminated.
Unfortunately, fixating on symptoms creates a crippling cycle of avoidance. Because anxiety feels overwhelming, people attempt to avoid situations, places, or conversations that might trigger these intense feelings. This strategy, however, proves costly. Trying to control emotional discomfort often consumes vast amounts of energy, and avoidance ultimately limits life, preventing movement toward meaningful activities. An effective angst terapeut recognizes that this struggle against one’s own internal experience—thoughts, feelings, and sensations—is the actual barrier to freedom.
The Trap of Symptom Obsession
The belief that painful emotions must disappear before a person can truly live often stems from a lack of psychological flexibility. Emotions are not controllable by intention; they lack an “on/off” switch. The attempt to gain mastery over feelings that cannot be mastered is exhausting and unproductive. The mind, focused on avoiding pain, becomes fixed, preventing adaptation or response to life’s inevitable challenges. The time and energy spent fighting the emotional war is time lost from actually investing in a worthwhile life.
Redefining Freedom: The Power of Values
A powerful therapeutic alternative lies not in changing what you feel, but in changing your relationship to those feelings. Instead of trying to manage the symptoms, the focus shifts entirely to defining and pursuing values. Values are the enduring principles or qualities that clarify what you want your life to stand for, acting as a constant compass guiding your choices.
Values versus Fleeting Feelings
Values differ fundamentally from fleeting feelings like happiness or calmness, and from external achievements like getting a new job or losing weight (goals). While goals can be accomplished, values are ongoing commitments—they are directions for how you choose to behave every day. Identifying these core beliefs provides the ultimate source of motivation, helping individuals sustain action even when it is difficult.
Committed Action: Living a Good Life
The ultimate aim of the therapeutic process led by an experienced angst terapeut is achieving committed action—taking purposeful steps aligned with these core values, regardless of whether fear, doubt, or anxiety is present.
Research strongly indicates that moving in valued directions naturally leads to a reduction in suffering and increased vitality. It is the act of deliberately linking behavior to purpose that creates lasting change, rather than waiting for emotional symptoms to subside first.
When you act based on values—for instance, choosing to attend a gathering because you value friendship, even while feeling social anxiety—you build psychological flexibility. This flexibility allows you to hold your unwanted feelings (passengers on the bus of life) without letting them determine your direction. The focus shifts from controlling fear to pursuing meaning, leading to a richer and more authentic existence.
This purposeful movement toward genuine fulfillment, facilitated by a skilled angst terapeut, is the antidote to the anxiety trap.
