Everyone loves a good anxiety success story and today we have one from our friend, and someone you hear all the time if you’re a regular listener, Ben Drake. Ben spent his days for quite a long time just trying to endure anxiety and panic. Bracing, fighting, and “white knuckling” his way through life as a working musician. Things changed for the better when he learned a new way to approach his anxiety issues.
Ben is the songwriter and performer behind “Afterglow”, the intro and outro music you’ve been hearing on the podcast for the last year or so. He lived through panic on stage, panic while traveling to and from performances, and panic just walking through the park near his home. It was a difficult existence without a doubt. Interestingly, Ben was one of those people that did not become fully agoraphobic. He did not retreat and avoid very often, choosing instead to just grit his teeth and power through anxiety and panic on a daily basis. He was living, but more accurately he was existing and it was exhausting.
When Ben learned that powering through panic is not the best plan, things began to change. When it all clicked for him, he stopped fighting against panic, and started relaxing into it. In the end, it was this new strategy that ended his struggle with constant panic and anxiety and made life easy again.
Takeaway
There are two takeaways from this episode:
1. Not everyone becomes agoraphobic. Some people just grit their teeth, power through anxiety all day, and hope to live to do it all again tomorrow. This is an exhausting way to live.
2. We solve this problem when we stop fighting against panic, and start relaxing into it. This seems wrong, but learning this new way to react to and relate to panic and anxiety is a total game changer. It takes time to really get a grip on and to learn through practice, but it makes all the difference.
Thanks so much to Ben for taking the time to share his story with us. To learn more about Ben Drake and his music, visit https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic.
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Intro/Outro Music: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (With Permission)
https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic
