I am getting a rough idea how to deal with anxiety

It is in no way perfect, but it is better than before.

I was introduced to the ideas of CBT just over a year ago. This has resonated with me very well.

One of the key things that stuck in my mind is the fact - and it is, most definitely, a fact - that the thoughts in our head are not real.

We convince ourselves of things and we trick or gaslight ourselves into believing this stuff. But it is just not true.

It's like Mark Twain said: “I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

I have done this all my life. From the age of 15 or so. And I can pretty much guarantee that 99.9% of the things I worried about never materialised.

The other 0.1% of things that did, I found I was more than capable of dealing with it.

I am currently just coming out of a very bad slump. I went into anxiety overdrive then the depression hit me.

I was able to tell myself that all the thoughts in my head were untrue. That these were things that are very unlikely to happen to me.

I took a very small amount of confidence in thinking like that.

Anxiety is like being awake after 24 hours and being in a room filled full of people nagging at you.

It took me too long to realise this. But the thoughts in my head are just negative thoughts that have very very little bearing to anything in my own life.

I have to have the strength to dismiss these thoughts for what they are. Total nonsense.