Anxiety disorder is not your fault. Chronic anxiety is not a product of choice, or an indication of some kind of personal failing. On the contrary, anxiety disorder is a disease, and like all diseases it exists outside the volitional control of those individuals whom it afflicts. No one ever decides to have cancer. By the same token, no one ever decides to suffer from anxiety. And, as should perhaps go without saying, no one can ever simply decide to get better.

You can’t overcome anxiety disorder without competent clinical treatment. Period. You can’t wish your way to recovery, or hope your way to health. If you’re going to beat the disease, it’s going to be because you entrust your care to professional experts. You wouldn’t expect a cancer patient to get better without cancer treatment. The same logic applies to anxiety sufferers. For your own sake, for the sake of the people who care about you…make today the day you finally make the right decision.