It's probably important to start out like this: there's no substitute for good treatment. Nothing that we say here should make you think that it's ok to seek a half-measure of help when what you need to find is a full serving. In fact, sometimes, waiting to seek treatment will just lead to a worsening problem. But then, when we consider a problem like anxiety, a problem which, surprisingly, is only just now being taken seriously by many people, well, any help at all can be better than nothing.
In fact, anxiety is one of the things it can be most difficult to seek treatment for. Sufferers of anxiety are often stuck in a feedback loop, trying to convince themselves that there's nothing wrong while chewing the cuticles off their fingers at the same time. Leaving the house can be a terrifying ordeal, so it might not be unusual to justify it by coming up with some kind of alternative routine that justifies almost never having to leave the house at all.
But that's no way to live.
Online Communities Have Revolutionized Therapy: But at What Cost?
Reddit is one of the fastest growing internet communities of all time. There are many different communities gathered around the site, with each community having established their own so-called 'sub-Reddit', a smaller group that addresses any given niche, from fitness to firefighters, from amateur stock traders to Pokemon obsessives. One such sub-Reddit may hold out hope for sufferers of anxiety, and it may turn out to be a very powerful tool in the fight to restore normalcy to an anxious person's life.
There are more than 28,000 registered users of Anxiety, and an FAQ with canonical answers to the most commonly asked questions about anxiety. As a resource for sufferers and their families, it may become the first place to go for information.
One of the most helpful things for sufferers of anxiety to find is identification with another person, that the way they feel is normal, that it's ok, and that it will pass.
People post their dreams and nightmares and mundane daily experiences on this site, detailing the excruciating minutiae of what it's like to suffere from anxiety. And that provides solace for a lot of people.
But for some sufferers of anxiety, it may not be enough. It might be a stopgap solution on the way to real therapy. Because, sometimes, anxiety can overpower an individual, and truly disrupt one's life. In that case, one may find themselves using Reddit or other online communities as a way to paper over deep wounds and avoid confronting them in a genuine therapeutic way.