If you were physically tired, you would find it hard to lift a heavy weight, so if you are emotionally tired, I think it makes sense that it is difficult to deal with things. Trying harder may not be the answer. Perhaps rest is? Or relaxation, or trying more effectively, or trying later, or maybe a combination of those things. I just came from talking to my doctor and he said people with depression sometimes think they should 'gut' it out, or that it's a matter of will power to get over depression, but he said no one would (or should) tell someone with a broken leg or with diabetes to gut it out or that it was only a matter of willpower. I am going forwards, but it definitely is a step or two forward, a totter backwards, for sure. I wanted to tell you, too, that I never thought I had anxiety; didn't understand it when people talked about "being anxious" and still don't have some of the symptoms others report as anxiety, which further compounded my understanding (which is still faulty) of what anxiety is, yet I think I probably had severe anxiety all my life from growing up in hell and because hell was the norm, I never knew there was such a thing as a peaceful day that wasn't filled with strife and hatred and extreme sadness and hostility and fear, literal, actual fear. I never had anxiety "attacks" that I recognized, anyway; I was on red alert 24/7, even when I slept. I do agree with you that things can come back with a vengeance, but while there are some people who don't want to ask for help, they probably have reasons for not asking for help and may not know they can ask for help. Mine is certainly because I fear abuse and retribution for asking for help and I have seen some of that here on this website, and of course in real life I have also seen it: people laugh at, make fun of, blame, downgrade, and verbally abuse others and some also minimize the hurt and upset of others, for a whole host of reasons. None of that is an incentive to ask for help. And again, in my situation, I not only fear the response of others but I did not recognize that I could ask for help because I did not recognize the possibility of there being some solution to what I was suffering. That said, because I am older, I have come to accept a certain amount of uncertainty, ambiguity, and unequal resolution to things (one only has to read a newspaper to see that that is a part of life) and I would be foolish to expect a complete dissolution of all of my anxiety when the mechanism (that which might save us in real danger) is designed to keep up safe--just as to open myself to the possibility of love, I also open myself to the possibility of being hurt or dissapointed. So while I would like to have the very painful symptoms mitigated, I know that sometimes, even in the happiest, most well-adjusted, fortunate life there exists some pain, some sadness, some sorrow, some grief, as well as boundless joy. I hope your or someone else has found at least part of what I have written here helpful.