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To be specific, the anxiety isn't actually helping you (after all, it's anxiety), but your brain thinks it is by taking your mind off of some other repressed emotion. If you happen to know it's TMS (usually you can once you expose the brain's tricks), you have a head start because you can tell your brain "Knock it off. I know what you're doing, but I don't need your help. I got this", and then you think of some unpleasant emotional issue to show it you're serious. At that point you lean into the anxiety (I'll explain this in a bit), and it will fade away on its own, without your effort. If, on the other hand, it's non-TMS anxiety, you can skip the first part (telling your brain you know what it's doing), and still do the second part: lean into it. "Slouch" into it might be a better way of putting it. Here's what I mean.

First of all, I didn't invent this. I discovered it from Dr. Claire Weekes' book "Hope and Help For Your Nerves". Okay: identify the particular symptoms you feel when you're having anxiety. Accelerated heart beats; skipped heart beats; cold sweats; churning stomach; the urge to go the bathroom; the feeling like you're going to die; etc etc. Any of these sound familiar? There's only a limited number of symptoms, but they're all caused by adrenaline and will not hurt your body.

Once you've identified the symptom or symptoms, try to make the symptom(s) worse.

You read that right! Try to make your heart beat faster. Or your legs shake harder. Or your stomach churn harder. Why? Because - and here's the magic - you'll find that you cannot do it! It's physically impossible! It's like trying to make your knee jerk when the doctor hits it with the hammer. You cannot make an involuntary thing better or worse on purpose (otherwise it wouldn't be involuntary!). This is a very important message to send to your brain: "I cannot make the symptoms worse, so go ahead and give me your best shot." Once you do this (and you really have to experience it for yourself), the monster loses its fangs and is ready to be tamed. Here's the second part.

Although you cannot control the initial involuntary symptoms, you CAN control what follows, which is the second fear: fear of the symptoms themselves. Let your body slouch and let the symptom (whatever it is) get as bad as it can on its own instead of resisting it. (Remember, it cannot get worse even if you tried). I know this is like the equivalent of asking you to let your body get swept right into a whirlpool without trying to swim away from it. But that's exactly what I'm asking. But I promise: it won't get worse. It will stay the same. Then before you know it (literally minutes, sometimes seconds) - the miracle takes place: the anxiety and its symptoms are gone and you're back to normal!

Once you experience this a few times, you gain confidence, knowing you can't control the involuntary first fear, but you can control the second fear (by "floating" into the symptoms). It's scary as hell the first time or two. Then you actually welcome it, knowing it won't get the best of you! Then it gets bored and leaves you alone, sometimes for a few minutes, but eventually for a few hours, then a few days, then weeks, then months. I went 6 years without anxiety until TMS reintroduced it. But now that I know they're totally related, they've both lost their fangs, and I'm in the process of slaying 20 years of chronic pain!

I'm truly sorry for this longwinded response. But once you learn to deal with TMS and anxiety (especially after suffering from them for so many years), how can you not shout it from the rooftops? IT WORKS!