Why You Get Anxiety When You Feel Good

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Welcome back. My name is Danielle Thornton. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach who has personally fully recovered for several OCD subsets, anxiety and depression. I've been helping others do the same since 2018. Today, we're going to talk about something that commonly happens when we're going through the recovery process. As we learn ERP and when I teach others, people start to feel better always when they're using these skills. So this happened to me and it may have happened to you, where you're feeling a lot better, you're using the skills, you're really happy with where you're at, and then all of a sudden you get the thought, oh my gosh, what if I get anxiety again? What if OCD comes back? Another intrusive thought that needs erp. But the reason why this happens is that our brain, the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, is on hyper alert to try to keep us feeling good, to keep us safe. And it's hypersensitive and focusing and looking for threats. And one of those threats is, what if OCD comes back? What if anxiety comes back? And the reality is it's going to right threat. The recovery process is ups and downs. We have to tackle all of the things that the brain is going to throw at us through the OCD recovery process. Because again, the problem is we've been running away from these things for so long. We've been running away from difficult thoughts, difficult feelings, difficult conversations, conflict. We've had many, many years of training our brain that we can't handle that type of thing and running away from it, which has led many of us to worsening anxiety and potentially ocd. So as we start to choose a different path of exposure and response prevention, you will start feeling better if you're learning it properly and using it properly. So you're going to have good moments and that's a wonderful thing. And yes, the intrusive thoughts are going to come back. It's not about not getting any more negative thoughts or doubts or uncertainties or intrusive thoughts, because I didn't believe it either at the time. They are very, very normal. So it's not about getting rid of those, it's about knowing what to do with them. So if you've felt good and you all of a sudden had the intrusive thought of what if it comes back and had that spike of anxiety? This is just another intrusive thought that you need to use ERP with, which is the quick version, not giving that thought Attention or leaning into the uncertainty of it a little bit or all the way with, yeah, OCD is going to come back. And then response prevention, not giving it attention. These are the quick tips. There are other things that I can teach you that will help, but when we do that and we truly don't do compulsions and we stop giving it attention, the thought will fade away. You may need more than that, by the way, which is why you might need to be working with somebody. But this process will work. So the brain is just looking for anything that it can to try to warn you and protect you. But the thing is, you don't need it. Okay? And when we start using ERP in response to the thoughts versus compulsions, we're teaching the brain that we don't need you to give us this thought. We're okay if anxiety comes back, we're okay if we get another intrusive thought. You may not want it, you may not feel okay with it, but over time you are going to get comfortable and confident with it. I am perfectly fine. If I get another intrusive thought. Anxiety, I don't really get it much anymore because ERP is a way of life and I don't let myself go back there. But it might happen, right? I don't know what the future holds. And so I'm always reminding myself that I may have a moment that's stressful, that's anxiety provoking, that's uncertain, and I may get caught back up in some of those negative coping mechanisms. I don't know. But I know exactly what to do with it, which actually helps me to keep from going back there and stay in that full recovery stage. Anxiety is part of life. Uncertainty is part of life, doubts, part of life. So when we know what to do with that so that it doesn't bother us anymore, that's how we get to and stay in that full recovery stage. And if we're afraid of it, we're giving it power. When your amygdala gives you a thought that causes anxiety, what you do with it tells the amygdala whether it needs to continue to warn you about this subject or not. And when we let the thought bother us, when we respond with compulsions, we're telling the amygdala that, yes, this is something it needs to continue to worry about, think about, look for, and continue to give us thoughts about. So this is super common and it's okay if it happens to you. It's all about how you respond to it. And your brain is just trying to protect you and saying, well, don't feel too good, because if you do, then if you have a bad day, you're going to feel really bad. And the reality is, is go feel good, right? Of course bad days are going to happen in life. That is part of life. But go have the best day you can until those things happen. And if and when they do, you can handle it. But when we let these thoughts bring us down, we're teaching ourselves that we can't handle the thoughts, that we can't handle the feelings, and we can't handle difficult things in life. And that is absolutely not true. It was true for me at one point, but it's not true anymore. And. And you can get there, too. I promise. So if you want help with this, please check out the link in the description below. Full recovery is possible, you guys, I promise. And if you don't work with me, go find somebody who believes in full recovery, who's going to help you identify all your compulsions, who's going to help you bring your compulsions to zero, which is crucial for full recovery, and who can support you through that. Okay? So I hope you guys have a good rest of your day, and we'll talk to you soon.