What You’ve Been Told Might Be Holding You Back

Anxiety gets a lot of airtime these days, but unfortunately, not all of it’s helpful. For something so common, it’s still wildly misunderstood. And when myths are repeated often enough, people start to believe them. Just like the anxious stories you tell yourself. Worse still, they shape how we respond to our own anxiety, and not in a good way.

Let’s set the record straight.

Myth 2 “If you avoid what makes you anxious, it’ll go away.”

Avoidance might feel like a short-term win, but it fuels anxiety in the long run. Every time you dodge a situation that makes you uncomfortable, you’re quietly teaching your brain that the fear was valid, that the thing was unsafe. The more you avoid things, the more it strenghtens the fear of facing those situations

Facing things gradually, with the right support, tells your brain something else entirely: you can handle it.

Myth 3 “Some people are just anxious. It’s who they are.”

Anxiety is a state, not a life sentence. It’s not part of your personality, anxiety can be “taught”, if you have an anxious parent, you learn how to do anxiety from them.That means it can be unlearned.

I work with clients every day who believed they were “just anxious people.” Now they walk into rooms with confidence, speak their truth without the stomach knots, and sleep peacefully for the first time in years.

Change is absolutely possible.

Myth 4 “Talking about anxiety makes it worse.”

Actually, the opposite is true. Suppressing anxiety doesn’t make it disappear, it just pushes it down where it bubbles away, quietly influencing your thoughts, your behaviours, and your physical health.

Naming it and working through it, especially with therapeutic tools like hypnotherapy, silent counselling, or breathwork, is the first step toward dismantling it.

It’s not about wallowing. It’s about taking your power back.

Myth 5 “Anxiety means something’s wrong with you.”

Not even close. Anxiety is not a flaw, it’s a signal. It’s your body’s way of saying, “Something here needs your attention.”

The real work is not in silencing the signal but in understanding it. What’s the root? What belief or past experience is driving the fear? And how can we begin to clear it?

You’re not broken. You’re responding to something that once felt unsafe. And that’s entirely human.

What to take away from this?

If you’ve recognised yourself in any of these myths, you’re not alone and you’re certainly not failing. Most of us were never taught how anxiety really works. Instead, we absorbed messages from society, school, family, and media that left us feeling ashamed, confused, or even broken.

But here’s the truth:
Anxiety isn’t a life sentence.
It’s not a character flaw.
And it’s not something you have to just “live with.”

What you can take from this is the understanding that anxiety is something you can learn to manage, shift, and eventually calm when you’re equipped with the right tools. The brain is highly adaptable. Your nervous system is designed to recalibrate. And your body is always seeking safety. Sometimes it just needs a bit of help getting there.

This is why I combine powerful methods like hypnotherapy and silent counselling to help you go beyond surface-level coping strategies and actually clear what’s underneath.
Because when you start addressing the root causes of anxiety, everything begins to change.
You sleep better. You breathe easier. You make decisions without second-guessing yourself.
And you start to feel like you again, maybe for the first time in years.

So next time that old belief creeps in, “I’m just anxious,” “I’m too sensitive,” “I can’t cope”, stop and remind yourself:

That’s not the truth.
That’s a myth I’ve been carrying.
And I don’t have to carry it anymore.

Your mind and body are not the enemy. They just need support to feel safe again.

That’s what I help people do every day. Check out my Myths about Anxiety videos here

If you’re ready to challenge your anxiety and create a new story, let’s talk.