Will My Anxiety Ever Go Away?

For people who are living with anxiety, things can sometimes feel overwhelming—particularly if your symptoms have been affecting your work, health and relationships.

You might be asking the question ‘Will things ever get better?’ or ‘When will things feel normal for me again?’.

The good news is that anxiety is extremely treatable, and most people can learn to effectively manage anxiety. That said, this might not mean that you won’t be faced with anxiety ever again—even those who can manage anxiety well sometimes experience difficulties during times of change and uncertainty, experiences of loss or grief, or periods of transition.

It can be really useful to know what to expect if you’re living with anxiety, and whether this is something that will need longer term care.

How long has anxiety been an issue for you?

For some people, anxiety has been part of their lives for as long as they can remember.

Perhaps this was due to an anxious or sensitive personality, or a stressful and challenging family dynamic growing up —either of these can result in a person experiencing anxiety from a very young age, and dealing with it throughout their lives. Interestingly, anxiety in children often appears as physical issues such as sore stomachs or feeling unwell. 

For other people, anxiety might have emerged as an issue later in life—perhaps as a result of a life transition (e.g., going from high school to university), or after an experience of loss or stress (e.g., a relationship breakdown or the loss of a loved one). For these people, the experience and symptoms of anxiety might be new to them, and can be quite distressing. In this situation, understanding the triggers and what was happening around the time of the onset of symptoms is important – to get to the cause and origin of the anxiety.

What are the major anxiety triggers for you, and how manageable are these?

Part of understanding your anxiety better is being aware of certain triggers and sources of anxiety in your life.

You may experience generalised anxiety—which means you feel anxious a lot of the time and for lots of different reasons. But, there are likely to still be certain triggers that bring this on.

For other people, anxiety might only be an issue in certain situations or around certain people—and being able to predict and manage triggers will be of great importance. 

Some common anxiety triggers can be being in new situations, being evaluated or judged, times of transition or change, having issues in relationships or friendships, facing potential failure, or having little control or predictability over day to day life.

It is good to remember that anxiety is our brain’s response to a threatening situation. So whatever feels threatening to you, it is likely that your brain will respond accordingly. For some people, that may be a university exam—for others, it may be eating in public. 

When we are thinking about triggers for anxiety, it is useful to remember that avoiding triggers might seem like a simple fix, but it actually often makes things worse by further convincing our brain that there is a threat.

A better option is to learn how to stay calm even when faced with certain triggers, and to understand why these triggers are impacting us—so that they have less impact on how we feel.

What kind of things have helped so far?

When looking to understand your anxiety symptoms, it is helpful to consider what has worked for you best so far. Has it helped talking to people about this, doing regular exercise and self care, taking medication, getting 8 hours of sleep per night, or maybe engaging in regular mindfulness and relaxation practices?

Being able to identify the most helpful resources in managing your anxiety helps to shed further light on how you will manage it in the future. 

For many people—whether their anxiety is a life-long issue, or situational, the support of a counselor or psychologist is extremely helpful—to understand where it has originated, and the most useful interventions. 

So—will anxiety ever go away?

As you can see, this question has no simple answer!

For most people who have experienced anxiety and sought treatment, there is often a reduction in the symptoms and distress associated with it. Understanding the origins of the anxiety, as well as common triggers, and learning how to manage these and regulate your emotions, means that you’ll feel more confident and empowered when you start to notice symptoms in the future.

It is to be expected that anxiety might come up during difficult times in life, but you can better prepare yourself for this by building up some useful management tools —whether this is the support of a therapist, increased focus on self care, medication, exercise, social support, or anything that works for you.

You might like to think of anxiety as a normal response to uncertainty and change—it is nothing to be ashamed of, and by treating it as a normal part of human experience, we can see that it is manageable and treatable. 

Using a resource such as Mind Ease can help with anxiety symptoms—whether you are looking to maintain your mental health, or are in the middle of a stressful and uncertain time.

Our Calm Me exercises are useful tools for physiological calming—just 10 minutes will help you to feel calmer and more relaxed, whatever is going on for you right now. You can benefit from exercises such as Mindful Meditation, Progressive Muscle Relaxation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which all evidence-based interventions that have been shown to quickly reduce anxiety and stress. 

👉 Download Mind Ease today to start to experience the benefits.