Correcting
How to Create Calm
Correcting Anxiety
Moving from controlling symptoms to correcting causes.
How do I get started?
If you can focus and concentrate, the CONTENT course is a good place to start.
If you struggle with focus, start on the Controlling page.
We need to know the hacks for managing the symptoms of anxiety. If you are having difficulty managing symptoms, start here. It's a multisession course on becoming content that looks into many top problems we face.
Ultimately we want to move beyond treating symptoms to correcting the cause. If you've learned to manage symptoms well enough to focus, start here.
Do yourself a favor and find some quality counseling. Make this your first move. I realize it's embarrasing for some to admit the need for help. For some, it's even difficult to make the call. Do whatever it takes to start counseling. More advice here.
Finding our pivot point
Reaching a place of readiness
My personal pivot point came about five years deep into pathological anxiety. I routinely begged God to rescue me from anxiety. God, however, refused my plea for rescue. Instead, I took a lesson from Paul who surrendered his illness allowing it to become his strength. Read 2 Corinthians 12:5-10 below.
Reaching a place of readiness (even desperation) is sometimes necessary to push and motivate us on the difficult climb to find our calm. In this respect, calm is spelled W-O-R-K.
How to find a counselor
My tips for finding help
Anxiety, for me, has been a mixed bag of shame and embarrassment. Reaching out for professional help was a last-ditch effort. I didn't want to admit I had a problem that required that level of help. I know better now.
I'm all about doing everything possible to quicken and strengthen recovery. Enough to build this site.
Professional help, in the end, means finding your solution sooner. We're so close and unfamiliar with the problems, that we can't see them. Having a "brain mechanic" take a look underneath the hood can put us on track much more quickly. Trust me; you'll still need to do the hard work but they can help you develop a plan.
Ask a pastor. If you're embarrassed to even go there, call another church in the area and get a recommendation from them.
Ask your insurance company. Tell them what you're looking for. They usually can filter lists by gender and faith practice.
Get help to get help. For those of us with social anxiety, making phone calls is a big deal. It's super scary. I give you permission to take a pass on the exposure this one time and get a friend or family member to help you with this task. Straight up tell them you've been having some trouble lately and you want help finding a therapist and making some phone calls.
Find more than one. Good therapists can often stay booked up. If they can't fit you in, ask for their recommendation. Good therapists know other good therapists.
Be aware of the costs. Some therapists will want you to pay upfront and send reimbursement paperwork to your insurance for out of network therapy providers. This is a hassle, but they do this because insurance companies often force them to accept very low fees when they are in the insurance network. Finding a recommended therapist who is also in-network can be difficult but not impossible. If you're unable or unwilling to submit paperwork, your best chance will be talking at length with the insurance companies.
Click the button below. I have not used them. And know very little about them. I know they are part of a larger network of therapists who vets their counselors. You can read about their beliefs here. But I am satisfied with their belief statement.
2 Corinthians 12:5-10 NLT
That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. [6] If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, [7] even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. [8] Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. [9] Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. [10] That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.