---
title: Cultivating Resilience
description: Internationally acclaimed recovery site focused on eating disorders, moving from fragility to power, developing confidence at work and in relationships, and narcissistic abuse recovery. Created by Joanna Poppink, MFT
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date: 2023-09-17T22:40:28Z
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![anxiety challenged with calm and determination](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/rock_climber.jpg)*Anxiety is challenged by calm, wisdom, strength and focus.*

Anxiety, whether it comes rarely, or is ever-present or seems to loom on the edge of your experience ready to strike, is a full body and emotional experience. When you are In it you want out of it. That desire to get immediate relief can leave people in a desperate situation where they will reach for food, alcohol, drugs, isolate at home and under the covers, emotional venting on others and even violence.

In my psychotherapy practice, my first goal is to gain trust so that the individual can have an anxiety attack in my presence. Knowing I can bear it helps the person know it’s bearable. She knows she can talk through it, think while it’s happening, and not act out. The first requirement in coping with anxiety and then relieving it is to be able to bear it while it’s happening.

Once that is achieved, we can unravel causes and triggers. We can develop the insight, strength and stamina to face and resolve the issues that cause our anxiety reaction.