by Dan Stelter

Created on: April 19, 2009

Many different methods exist to help people recover from anxiety, and what works for one may not work at all for another; there are few rules - many parts of anxiety recovery contradict one another based on the person. The notion that a certain authority makes contradictory claims should not come as a surprise to anyone because it is often seen in almost every sphere of life. Government, the law, and many religions all make contradictory claims as to what the right things are to do.

This is because life is so amazing complex that no one single rule fits all; many people exist whom the rules fail to describe, while still many more exist who are a stark exception to the rule. In relation to exercise, for example, some people may experience strong anxiety reduction from just a few minutes of exercise, while some may see just slight reduction from a similar amount. Medication is a great example of one rule not fitting all. Some people respond to a certain medication, while many others do not. In some cases, the medication can cause significant harm to some people. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be very helpful for some, but then again, many others may not respond to it at all.

The fact that anxiety sufferers can receive conflicting results from the same set of treatments makes recovery from anxiety very confusing. If there is no hard rule for recovering anxiety, then how is one supposed to think and act in order to begin to relax?

The answer is only one word long: experience. Whoever said, "Experience is the best teacher," was exactly right. One rule that all people can be assured of that is true is that all people have similarities, and all people have differences. Therefore, different things work for different people. A professional counselor cannot look at a person and say, "This guy needs cognitive behavioral therapy, medication, and exercise." But rather, the counselor talks to the person and assesses the person's experience, and then helps that person to identify his or her goals, and actions to take to attain those goals, based on that person's experience.

So, the best thing for a client to do (and this is one of those important points the social work profession uses) is to do what works best for him or her. Only the client knows what works for him or her in terms of anxiety recovery. If the client does not know, then he or she would be best served by gaining experience with the unknown quantity.

The only caveat to this rule (as noted earlier there are always

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>