The Anxiety Wave blog
Articles on anxiety recovery, written by people who struggled with anxiety themselves and found their way out. A new one every week.
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“I should feel better now… be further along… able to handle this”. You probably say some version of this dozens of times a day. Here’s why that one word is quietly making everything worse.
“Is this anxiety making me feel sick? Or am I actually sick and about to throw up in public?” I spent years asking this question. Turns out it doesn’t actually matter.
Maybe you know you’re not supposed to fight it, or it’s just nervous energy. You might even know the steps by heart. And then anxiety hits and everything disappears. Here’s why that happens and what to do about it.
No specific trigger. No clear cause. No relief when you leave the situation because the situation was never really the point. If everything sets you off and the anxiety is just always there, here’s what’s actually happening.
Panic attacks. Then health anxiety. Then intrusive thoughts. Or maybe a completely new symptom showed up just when things were improving. Here’s why anxiety keeps changing its shape, and why the answer is always the same.
You know that fighting anxiety makes it worse. And yet you’re still stuck. Here’s why understanding anxiety and recovering from it are two completely different things.
You’ve been invited to something. And immediately the anticipatory anxiety starts. Here’s why, and why you cancel things that would have been fine.
You open your eyes and the anxiety is already there. Here’s what’s actually going on.
Does anxiety ever actually go away? The short version is yes. But the sequence to get there matters more than most people realize.
“I get it. Just allow it, right? But when I’m actually in it what am I actually supposed to DO?” Here’s the clearest answer I can give you.
You’re doing the work, responding properly, trying to allow rather than fight. And then anxiety shows up again. So how do you actually know if any of it is working? Here’s what to actually look for.
You want to recover more than anything. And at the same time, something in you is quietly holding back. Most people never say this out loud. Let’s talk about it.
Your heart starts racing out of nowhere. Chest tightness, dizziness, that feeling like you can’t breathe. And your brain goes: something is seriously wrong with me. Here’s what’s actually happening.
I want to tell you about something I almost shared with the world as the answer to anxiety recovery. Spoiler: it wasn’t recovery. It was management dressed up as a system. Here’s what actually changed everything.
I’m going to share something I never thought I’d put on the internet. When I had anxiety, I’d be standing in the kitchen and get this thought: I’m going to stab my cat. Here’s what that actually means.
I’ve always been afraid of dying. But there’s a big difference between the natural human fear of dying and what happens when an anxious brain latches onto it. Here’s what’s actually going on.
You’ve been doing the work. Allowing the discomfort, showing up to the scary situations, practicing the response. And then you wake up still feeling anxious and conclude it’s not working. Here’s why you’re measuring the wrong thing.
Suffering from DP/DR? Here’s what’s actually causing it, why it’s not as scary as it seems, and what to do about it.
You had a few good days. Maybe even a good week. And then anxiety came back hard and now you’re sitting there wondering if any of it even counted. Here’s the truth about setbacks that nobody tells you.
You Google your symptoms at 3am, ask your partner if you’re okay for the fourth time, call the doctor just to hear it’s nothing. And it works. For about ten minutes.
Most people with anxiety have tried CBT. Writing down thoughts, challenging them, replacing them. But the anxiety stays. Here’s exactly why classical CBT doesn’t work, and what actually leads to real recovery.
Performance anxiety shows up in sport, at work, and in the bedroom and underneath all three, it’s the exact same loop. The instinct is to try harder. But that’s the one thing that makes it worse.
You cancel plans. You replay every conversation for days. You show up, but spend the whole time trapped in your own head. Social anxiety doesn’t just make socializing hard — it quietly steals your life. If you’re exhausted from living like this, this one’s for you.
You stop driving because anxiety showed up. Here are 5 things that will change how you think about driving with anxiety, starting with something that will probably surprise you.
Maybe you’ve heard of “acceptance”. But nobody tells you what that actually means – or how to do it. In this post I’m breaking down exactly how to respond to anxiety that leads to recovery.
If you’ve ever said ‘I have anxiety,’ you may have accidentally made recovery harder. Here’s how the story you tell about yourself keeps anxiety in place and what to shift to start moving forward.
Anxiety isn’t the situation. It’s the story your mind creates about it. Learn to spot the difference, challenge what isn’t true, and respond in a way that helps your nervous system finally calm down.
Not every thought deserves your attention. Learn the difference between productive thinking and unproductive thinking — and why this simple shift can help break the cycle of anxiety.
Most people try to fight anxiety, which actually keeps the cycle alive. In this post I explain the Anxiety Loop and the Emotional Limit — two powerful concepts that helped me permanently break the cycle of panic and fear.
“What if nothing ever changes?” That question kept me stuck in anxiety for years. What I eventually discovered is that recovery doesn’t start with confidence — it starts with courage.
In this post, I explore how anxiety exposes hidden patterns like avoidance, over-control, overthinking and self-pressure — and how becoming aware of them might be the lesson you didn’t know you needed.
Most people say they’ve tried everything to fix their anxiety — and nothing worked. I said the same. But I wasn’t trying everything. I was trying different ways to get rid of anxiety. And that goal is exactly what was keeping me stuck.
Why does anxiety show up out of nowhere and why won’t it leave? Discover the hidden pattern that keeps it alive (and the simple shifts that break it).
Six uncomfortable truths about anxiety that can completely change your recovery — especially if you feel stuck, frustrated, or confused about why nothing seems to work.
Exposure didn’t work for me, until I learned the missing ingredient. Here’s why “just facing it” can backfire, and the practical shift that turns exposure into real nervous system retraining.
