Maggie Perry(She/Her/Hers)

Change is stressful for everyone. There are some changes, like anticipated life transitions, that feel exciting in addition to being stressful. There are other changes, like managing a physical or mental illness, that feel more stressful than exciting for most people. Learning to live well with a mood or anxiety disorder requires change. Because change is challenging, it is an inherently courageous way to live.

Your anxiety or mood disorder is not your fault. Your biological sensitivities made you vulnerable to these disorders. How you respond will make the symptoms more or less likely. To live well with biological and psychological sensitivities that make you vulnerable to anxiety and depression, you have to change how you respond to your symptoms. Where you used to respond with avoidance, self-criticism, and fear, you must learn to respond with courage, curiosity, and compassion. The mind is too mysterious to know it completely, but living by these values will reduce your suffering.

You didn’t choose the body you were born with and many of the factors that influence the mind you have were and are outside of your control. The fact that anxiety and mood disorders are chronic, intermittent conditions doesn’t mean that you will always suffer. You have sensitivities that make you vulnerable to anxiety and mood episodes. The more you know yourself and respond to yourself with courage, curiosity, compassion, the less likely you are to suffer.