While packing up, I found this “letter” I wrote to Anxiety, in an effort to distance myself from anxious thoughts (the doctor recommended doing this – address the anxious thought as an entity outside of yourself.) This was at the very beginning of my Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for panic disorder in spring of 2010, when I had only just started exercising – walking 2 miles a day was pretty much the most I could do. I weighed 30 lbs heavier then.
Reading my journals I can see how terribly in the grips of this awful disorder I had been – for years. Only now, 2+ years later from beginning CBT, do I feel almost entirely free from its evil clutches. Exercise has been at the core of this recovery. Just a few days ago I thought to myself how far I’d come when I was running off trail through woods at Horn Pond, how free I felt, just running in a direction and not worrying where I was – only for a moment. Then I wondered. 🙂
anniemac attack: in the woods 