This week on The Anxious Truth, we're going to talk about the idea that you don't have to recover if you don't want to, so let's get into it.

This is episode 214 of The Anxious Truth Podcast. If you are new to the podcast, I am Drew Lensalada, I am creator and host of The Anxious Truth.

This is the podcast where we cover all things anxiety, anxiety disorders, and recovering. So if you're struggling with things like panic attacks or panic disorder, OCD, health anxiety, garophobia, this is a good place for you to be. I'm happy that you're here and of course if you are returning to the podcast or the YouTube channel, welcome back. I'm always glad that you are here.

This week we are going to talk about the idea that you don't necessarily have to recover and that choice is yours and yours alone.

But before we get into that, I just want to remind you that The Anxious Truth is more than just this podcast episode. There are three really good books and anxiety and anxiety recovery that I have written over the past couple of years that are helping tens of thousands of people around the world.

You should check those out. There are 200 and somewhat other podcast episodes all free. There is my morning newsletter called The Anxious Morning. That's free. And there are links to all of my social media content. That's free, all of which you can find on my website at TheAnxiousTruth.com.

So take advantage of the resources. If you are enjoying my work and I'm helping you in some way, shape, or form, and you would like to find a way to help me keep this work free of advertising and sponsorships, then all the ways that you can support it can be found at TheAnxiousTruth.com's slash support.

That is always appreciated, never required. So however way you support this work, whether it's financially or just by being here subscribing to the podcast, subscribing to the YouTube channel, leaving a comment. I appreciate that. I really do.

So this week, we're going to talk about the idea that you do not actually have to recover. That's true. And that might sound crazy coming from a guy like me because they spend so much time talking about recovery from things like panic disorder or agoraphobia.

But in reality, you don't have to recover. You have the right to choose to not do any of the things that I talk about and write about and make videos about or make social media content about.

So I do not have the right to tell you to do anything, nor does any other mental health content creator. So I don't care who it is, whether it's me or Josh Fletcher, Kim Quimlin, whoever, I like your castings, Jen Overbaugh, you know all the usual suspects.

You hear us talk about these things and you may feel that you are not ready for that or that that is not really for you. That sort of stuff isn't for you. It's not right for you.

You have always the 100% unalienable right to make that choice. So as ridiculous as it is for me to say, you can choose to do whatever you want to do to address your anxiety disorder or not do whatever you don't want to do.

And I do not get to pass judgment on that. So this is a weird thing to talk about because a lot of people would think, but you know, shouldn't I get better? Well, I would love it if you got better. That's why I do this. I don't do it so that you don't get better.

But in the end, I don't get to decide that only you do and only you get to decide whether or not what you think I'm saying is right for you or anybody that sounds like me. Yes, I'm coming at this from a cognitive behavioral standpoint, which means that you have to intentionally do scary things.

You have to intentionally do difficult things. You have to go toward the things you fear. You have to go toward your triggers and that is unpleasant for everybody and many people will decide that no, no, I don't want to do it that way or that type of recovery doesn't apply to me and that's okay.

You are welcome to make that decision and make the determination that act accordingly. So I think one of the things that I really want to throw out there and this isn't going to be a terribly long podcast is that I don't judge you for that.

I can always speak for myself, but I'm thinking that anybody else that does this thing that I do probably has at least some compassion for you and your situation maybe has also lived it like I have.

So I have no need to judge you. If you decide that I am wrong for you and the things I am talking about don't apply or you don't like them or you think I don't know what I'm talking about, I still 100% support you as one human being to another and respect you and respect your right to make that decision.

But that means that one of the things that you will never find for me is I will try to teach you what I can and inspire you and motivate you and connect you with a community of people who might do the same and allow themselves to share their experiences with you and maybe leave some breadcrumbs for you to follow along the way.

I can do all those things and people like me can do all those things, but I can only speak for me on my podcast and my YouTube channel.

I can do those things. What I cannot do is to try to convince you that you should recover. If you do want to recover, I think that what I'm talking about is the way to do it, but I'm never going to try to convince you.

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