running away or towards problems

I am a strong believer that problems can be dealt with in one of two ways: you can run away from them, or run towards them. Running away from problems is always the easiest option, and solves them for a short period of time, but it's never a long term solution. However, running towards your problem means that you have no choice but to deal with it. While running towards your problem and being forced to deal with it is far more difficult, and can often not work, it's still worth a try, in my opinion.

I've got through many problems by just dealing with them head on, such as my anxiety. I do still suffer with anxiety now, but it's no way near as bad as it used to be. I used to avoid leaving the house for fear of speaking to people or encountering situations that I would panic, and also a combination of other mental illnesses preventing me from living 'normally'. But, now although I still have anxiety, I find it a lot easier to cope with. My panic attacks are far less frequent and I find it easier to deal with it in so many different situations including talking to strangers.

I have a few friends both in real life and on the internet who suffer with anxiety of varying degrees and varying levels of recovery, and they all seem to follow the same approach- running away. It wasn't actually until my best friend developed anxiety a couple of years ago that I was forced to deal with mine and try to get better. She struggled with many of the same things that I did, but she was unwilling to try to get better, and so therefore stayed at home a lot, similarly to me previously. I thought that if I worked on my anxiety, it would make our friendship easier and we could try get things back to the way they used to be.

She developed a strong fear of paying for things in shops at that time, and I had always had a fear of paying for things in shops, but for her, I tried my hardest to conquer my fear, and months on, I'm still working on it but I am definitely getting there. She is thankful that I am doing this for her, and her parents are also grateful that I am able to help her as someone who understands, as they do not have anxiety, nor do they know how to deal with it, so they are thankful for my help, but I just see it as something that any friend should do.

My friend has since maintained what I consider to be a steady level of anxiety for a while, but she still uses the 'running away from her problems' technique and has regretted it. She has told me that she wishes she could just face her problems head on in an attempt to try to beat them, however I just don't think that she is ready yet. In time though, I think she will be ready.



For me, the last month has been an interesting one for my anxiety- I have forced myself to run right towards the problem and try to beat it, and it's actually working surprisingly well. It doesn't work every time, but each time is getting me closer to where I want to be. I will henceforth continue to run towards whatever issues I have with my anxiety until I, for lack of a better word, 'beat' it.