Anxiety Over Time
Why Those of Us With Anxiety Feel Worse With Age
As I previously wrote about, while I had been struggling with social anxiety all of my life, I only put my finger on it in my mid-twenties.
Another realisation I had, only last year, was that while I’ve learned to function better socially as I’ve got older, as the years have passed, I’ve felt worse inside.
I think this is partly due to the hope of somehow growing out of my social anxiety diminishing as time went on. When I was younger, I think I held the belief that, once I was an adult, I would feel confident and self-assured, naturally letting go of whatever held me back in my youth. Reaching my thirties and still feeling the same, and in some ways worse, as I did when I was a teenager, crushed that belief, leaving me feeling somewhat hopeless. Thankfully, coming across The Social Anxiety Institute restored some of my faith that I would one day be stronger than the negative thoughts and beliefs swirling around in my head. It did, however, take me four years to work my way through all of its online therapy materials… Not ideal when time is of the essence.
I learned so much from those extensive teachings, including that another reason those of us living with anxiety often feel worse with age is because our negative thoughts and beliefs are compounded over time. Since they usually form in childhood, by the time we reach our twenties, our brains have been on the lookout to find “evidence” to support them for a good decade at least. Yet more compelling rationale to give young people the tools, and teach them the techniques, required to start taking control of their own minds before they exit their teens.
