Depending on the severity of it, anxiety can be an incredibly debilitating condition to live with. It has the ability to interfere with everyday life, decisions, responsibilities and relationships, and over time, it can feel rather consuming.
Because the influence of anxiety can be so overwhelming, it’s discouraging to contemplate the fact that very little has been discovered regarding long-term recovery from this type of mental illness.
That is, until now.
“Canadian researchers were heartened to report earlier this week that there is hope on the horizon for people suffering from anxiety,” says an article from The Good News Network. “The study from the University of Toronto investigated three levels of recovery in a large, representative sample of more than 2,000 Canadians with a history of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).”
The study’s findings revealed that “72% of Canadians with a history of GAD have been free of the mental health condition for at least one year. Overall, 40% were in a state of excellent mental health, and almost 60% had no other mental illness or addiction issues, such as suicidal thoughts, substance dependence, a major depressive disorder or a bipolar disorder, in the past year,” the article details.
As for what excellent mental health consists of, individuals must be able to report that they have “almost daily happiness or life satisfaction in the past month … high levels of social and psychological well-being in the past month, and … freedom from generalized anxiety disorder and depressive disorders, suicidal thoughts and substance dependence for at least the preceding full year,” says the article.
While recovery looks different for everyone, these findings are very optimistic for anyone who suffers from anxiety, in my opinion, and they demonstrate that recuperation from such a manipulative condition is possible. Anxiety recovery is possible, and even better, it’s more prominent than we may have realized.
ontheedgeofeverything 