CURE!!!!!
Now there is a word with more definitions than the Inuit have names for snow. It certainly means different things to different people. For most people recovery is a better word because they are at the point they just want things to be the way they were, even if they weren't that good. Functioning is better than how you are or were. None of these are right. and yet all of them are. The problem is with how the mind thinks not how the body works. How the body works is a symptom or reaction or both to how the mind works. They are all connected.
Triggers are just triggers, symptoms are just symptoms and actions and reactions are just that too. CBT doesn't make them go away in that sense but makes them go away in the sense that they mean something different. Something harmless. Something that you don't notice anymore in the same way so that you don't get the same reaction.
Is this what you want for a cure? Or do you want to have no triggers?
Normal anxiety is healthy and can be exciting. Racing down a winding hill is the same trigger as racing down a crowded freeway. You get the same reaction and the same symptoms. Just different thoughts. One though is because you want to and the other is because you have to. What if you used the same thought patterns for one with the other. wouldn't you get the same reaction. Of course you would, the mind is conditioned and trained to get a certain emotion from a certain thought. A+B makes AB it has no choice. So it seems to me that with anxiety disorders we are using the wrong thought pattern with the trigger getting the wrong reaction. Turning A+B into C which it is not, which the mind has no way to deal with other than panic because of the wrongness.Well no it is more than thinking so but knowing so since I have gone through this. My thought patterns are different than they were. I'm not the same person I was before my anxiety disorder because I didn't have it and didn't need these thought patterns. Yet my goals and ideals are the same so I am the same person. So recovered might be the word for me. But too since I have settled into these new thought patterns and don't have panic attacks, cured might be the word. But what about the couple of times a year that I have to actually use coping skills. Does this mean I'm only maintaining. Look around you. It is a rare person who doesn't get anxious some of the time. Does this mean we all suffer from anxiety. No, they just take it in stride and it is more nuisance for them than actual. Different thought patterns from the person with an anxiety disorder even though the trigger is the same. So you tell me what your definition of cure is? I know we all want to have a life without anxiety but do you want to be totally free and as lifeless as a carrot or would you rather be able to shrug it off and live in exciting times. A lot of exciting things cause anxiety but not panic.
CBT is about changing thought patterns and in that way you could say it makes the triggers go away, it makes the anxiety go away and definitely makes the panic go away. If this is acceptable then that is a cure.
One final word from some one who has always been prone to anxiety. It is fantastic having control over it and not need meds. It is terrific being able to do anything I want to within my physical capability.
Davit
Looking forward to having my other cataract fixed, I will be more comfortable driving having 20/20 in both eyes.
