I'm dealing with general anxiety and social anxiety...I've been with my T for almost 5 years now, she's given me tons of tools, I'm on Xanax, and tonight at Target, I started to have an anxiety attack.

There are many things that are easier for me now than they were when I first started therapy. There are some things that are still so hard! There are some social situations that I will probably never be comfortable in, so I choose to just avoid those as much as possible.

There is no set time for how long learning to deal with anxiety can take, and I don't think there's a set method. I think it's different for each person, because while the symptoms can be similar from person to person, the triggers can be vastly different.

I once asked my T if I would ever be able to be "normal" and she asked me what I considered normal. I told her "not feeling anxious," and her reply was that I will probably always feel some level of anxiety - that's the way I'm wired. For me, that's normal. I can learn tools to deal with the anxiety, but there will always be some level there that I will have to either tolerate or try to lessen to a level that I can tolerate.