A.S. Thorne

Anxiety is convincing.

It speaks fluently in logic.
It sounds like caution, intuition, self-protection.
It has a reason for everything.

Now isn’t the right time.
You’re too tired.
You’ll fall apart if you open that door.
You should wait until you’re stronger.

Anxiety is very good at sounding reasonable.

Trauma taught it how.

But here’s the part no one loves hearing:

Avoidance is not healing.
Understanding is not healing.
Talking around the wound is not healing.

Anxiety doesn’t want you healed.
It wants you contained—functional enough to survive, never free enough to change.

Healing doesn’t happen by accident.
You don’t wake up one morning mysteriously lighter, untouched by the things you’ve spent years circling. Time alone doesn’t do the work. Insight doesn’t do the work. Wanting to be better doesn’t do the work.

The work is quieter.
And harder.
And slower than people expect.

It looks like choosing discomfort on purpose.
Like staying in the conversation a few minutes longer than you want to.
Like noticing when anxiety is protecting you—and deciding not to let it drive.

Not all at once.
Not recklessly.
But intentionally.

Yes, healing happens at your pace.
That part matters.

But pace is not the same as refusal.

There’s a difference between honoring your nervous system and letting fear run the schedule. Between gentleness and stagnation. Between rest and hiding.

Anxiety will always vote for safety as it understands it—
which usually means don’t touch the thing that hurts.

Healing asks a different question:

What happens if I stay?

Not forever.
Not without support.
Just long enough to prove to yourself that discomfort isn’t the same as danger.

This isn’t about forcing yourself to relive everything.
It’s about learning that avoidance has a cost.
That staying frozen isn’t neutral.

Left alone long enough, anxiety doesn’t just protect you.
It decides who you become.

Healing isn’t dramatic.
It’s repetitive.
It’s showing up again after deciding not to yesterday.

It’s learning how to sit with your body when it wants to run.
How to breathe through the urge to disappear.
How to let fear speak—and still choose something else.

You don’t have to rush.
You don’t have to be fearless.
You don’t have to do it perfectly.

But you do have to participate.

Because anxiety won’t hand you healing.
It will hand you reasons.

And at some point, you get to decide which one you’re going to keep listening to.

— A.S. Thorne 🖤

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If You Need Support

You don’t have to do this alone. If you’re in the United States and need support—whether you’re in crisis or just need someone steady on the other end—these resources are available 24/7:

• National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN):
  📞 800-656-HOPE (4673)
  💬 Online chat available at rainn.org
• National Domestic Violence Hotline:
  📞 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
  💬 TTY: 1-800-787-3224
  🌐 thehotline.org
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline:
  📞 Call or text 988
  💬 Chat at 988lifeline.org

Reaching out doesn’t mean you’re failing.
It means you’re choosing not to carry everything by yourself.

And that, too, is part of the work.