We regularly get asked about whether the longevity of anxiety or panic disorder has a bearing on the time it takes to recover and the simple, fast answer is NO.

Due to popular psychological practice models, we are conditioned to believe that human psycho-physiology requires time and many ‘sessions’ to isolate and assign ‘blame’ and to then travel along a treatment timeline designed to address each issue or ’cause’ in turn. The first thing to note is that assigning blame to life events is pointless becaus ethey are not the ’cause’.

The treatment model may ‘work’ in terms of creating an accessible, financially viable access to a psychologist or psychotherapist, but in terms of core neuroscience, there’s a flaw!

You see, human psychology developed to be adaptable and also very quickly so, meaning that as we move through environments and are exposed to objects and situations that give rise to emotional responses, our minds and bodies are working together to maintain, not only, equilibrium (internal and external wellebing/health)  but also appropriate emotional experiences… hopefully positive ones.

Regardles of the catalyst, any emotional response is chemical, electrical and cellular… this means that physical bodily tissue, chemical messengers and neurological signals, come together to produce every thought, notion, sensation and perception we experience. These are activated and deactivated as requires, beit digestion, circulation, respiration, blood sugar regulation, emotions or anything else… this is done autonomically by the subconscious mind without any conscious intervention.

These systems have no relationship with the construct of ‘time’… time experienced has no bearing on the level of suffering or intensity of symtoms and certainly doesn’t produce any kind of ‘habit’… habits are psychologically entirely different.

In essence, the cases we have treated, some of whom have suffered for a slither of time within their life timeline, others who have suffered for many decades, have all recovered across similar timeframes… why? Because that’s just the way the body works.

So, if you suffer from an anxiety disorder and have ever had the thought that it might be ‘too late for you to change’… how wrong you are… change will be as swift and permanent in you as it would be in someone who has suffered for just a few days.

Charles Linden