Anxiety and Solutions: Insights from Personal Experience

An exploration of dealing with anxiety based on personal journey and MBTI types.

Anxiety Story: My Ways to Alleviate or Solve Anxiety (Personal Experience)

During my high school years, I encountered some setbacks in interpersonal relationships, which led to symptoms of depression and anxiety for a period. I even experienced somatic symptoms such as tremors, muscle weakness, memory decline, and insomnia. It has been about two years since I left the environment that caused my anxiety. However, I still feel anxious from time to time.

Recently, I have read some psychology books and online materials. After all, anxiety is not an organic disease. Human emotions are caused by thinking patterns. Surely everyone has had the experience of having a new perspective on something once they understand a certain thing or principle.

As an ENTJ, I have extremely strong control and goal orientation. In addition to interpersonal issues, part of my previous anxiety also came from the pressure of the upcoming college entrance examination. Adolescence is a stage of booming self-awareness and self-knowledge. I have been thinking about what my ideal personality is and how to balance my pursuits, studies, and interpersonal relationships. However, thinking about these macroscopic life issues only brings me more anxiety when I am still in an anxious state and unable to control my mindset.

So, I have thought of two solutions.

1. Break down anxiety. For example, if I am anxious about the college entrance examination and just sit idly waiting for nothing to happen, as time passes day by day, I definitely cannot avoid the exam. This kind of anxiety is negative and not only does not promote my academic progress but also makes me feel powerless. The correct solution is to break down tasks into daily ones. I make a task list for myself every day, which can be a bit overloaded. This can bring me a sense of anxiety. Then, the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment after completing tasks can positively feedback to my studies, creating a virtuous cycle. The underlying logic is not to be anxious about something that is still in the future and that you still have time to change. Be specific to every day or even every hour and live in the present. Concrete actions are the best way to combat anxiety.

2. Let go of what makes you anxious. Taking my interpersonal relationships as an example, to be honest, people's evaluations of me since childhood have always included the word 'self-centered'. But there is no good or bad personality. In a specific environment, a specific personality will show its advantages. For example, I have always been a person who pursues excellence in academics and constantly seeks to surpass myself. I am relatively strong in interpersonal communication output. At the same time, there are also disadvantages. I find it difficult to tolerate some small flaws of others, which is particularly evident in collective life. And sometimes attacks on my viewpoints by others can make me fall into negative emotions. Being too admiring of the strong leads me to lack understanding and recognition of introverted people and think they are overly emotional. Previously, I always wanted to find a balance between academics and interpersonal relationships. I wanted to be both an individualistic person and a person liked by everyone and sociable. So I constantly criticized myself and fell into internal conflict.

In fact, observing those with high energy levels reveals that the most important thing for people is self-consistency. Self-consistency means that this person knows what they value the most and what can be sacrificed, rather than wanting everything. Otherwise, it is often in vain. People are not perfect. Using dialectics to explain things, we should focus on the mainstream. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It just depends on whether the flaws are overshadowed by the strengths or vice versa. After understanding this point, I gave up my perfectionism and transferred my anxiety in interpersonal relationships to academics. At least for someone like me who values academics and people, this kind of anxiety is meaningful instead of just internal conflict for nothing. Although internal conflict in interpersonal relationships may bring more friends, I cannot deny it. But if it causes my academic performance to decline, I will think it is putting the cart before the horse.

The above is only a summary and sharing of personal experience and has no scientific or medical basis. If anxiety symptoms are too severe, it is still necessary to seek medical attention in a timely manner and follow the doctor's advice. I hope it can be of some help to everyone!