What Is Recovery? The Truth About Healing From Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma

When You Go to Therapy, What Do You Expect to Get Out of It?

Maybe you want relief. Maybe you want to stop feeling anxious all the time. Maybe you just want someone to finally explain why life feels so damn hard.

And therapy can help with that.

Traditional therapy is built around treating illness. It identifies symptoms, diagnoses conditions, and gives you tools to manage them. And for many people, that can bring great relief.

But what if we’re settling for relief when we could actually experience a completely new and joyful way of living?

What if therapy didn’t stop at symptom management?
What if, instead of learning to live with suffering, you could actually find a life you appreciate along with it?
What if there was a way to move forward—not by getting rid of struggle, but by learning how to live fully, no matter what shows up?

That’s where recovery comes in.

The strange thing? We talk a lot about mental illness, but we don’t talk about recovery.

Which is wild—because not only is recovery possible, many people experience full remission from depression and anxiety.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that 38% of people with major depression achieve full symptomatic remission and 30% of those with generalized anxiety disorder recover completely (source).

Another long-term study found that 78% of individuals with anxiety disorders achieved remission within six years (source).

Yet, no one talks about this.

And when people believe recovery isn’t even an option—they have no reason to look for it.

What the Hell Is Recovery?

For a lot of people, the word recovery instantly brings to mind substance use.

And that’s because the community of people who have found their path out of addiction figured it out first. (Thank you for all that you've given yourself and the world through your recovery, and more on that later.)

As it turns out, recovery as a concept applies well beyond substances—we just haven’t been approaching it that way.

If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, depression, trauma, or any other mental health challenge, recovery applies to you, too.

The problem? Most people don’t even know it’s an option.

We’re taught that mental health treatment is about coping—learning how to manage symptoms, handle stress, and function despite the struggle.

But recovery is something different.

Recovery isn’t about eliminating all difficult emotions.

It’s about learning how to live a life you actually appreciate—no matter what emotions show up.

And the substance use folks? They've been putting in the effort to understand what it's all about for a long, long time.

Because at its core, recovery isn’t about forcing yourself to feel better and make change. It’s not about endless restriction or white-knuckling your way through life.

It’s about expanding your life beyond your struggle—until it no longer becomes a power struggle for life. (Take it day by day, anyone?)

And that applies to so much more than substances.

Most people assume recovery means:

• Never feeling anxious again

• Never having intrusive thoughts

• Never struggling with emotions

Which sounds awesome, I would love that—and it’s also completely unrealistic.

That’s not recovery. That’s a fantasy.

When you stop trying to feel good all the time—when you stop seeing discomfort as proof that something is wrong with you and start responding to life in a way you feel good about—you actually start to feel better as a side effect.

Not because you forced yourself into happiness.
Not because you finally “fixed” yourself.
Because for the first time, you have a new path forward.

I Thought I Was Broken. I Was Wrong.

For most of my life, I was certain that there was something fundamentally wrong with me—something I would be dealing with for the rest of my life.

I was diagnosed with over five different conditions. I cycled through therapy and medication. I struggled with anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.

And then, there was that day.

I was sitting in class, listening to my professor talk about how likely it was that we were going to fail his course.

My heart started pounding. My stomach churned. I felt like I was about to die.

I left. Made it to the bathroom. Panicked. Threw up.

And as I sat there, hands shaking, one thought hit me:

"I don’t want to be dealing with this anymore."

Shortly after, I was kicked out of university. And for the first time, I started asking myself a different question:

What’s actually causing me to suffer?

It wasn’t just the anxiety. It wasn’t just the panic.

It was the beliefs I held about myself. The way I responded to those beliefs. The way I tried so hard to fix myself that I made everything worse.

I started to see how my own attempts to cope were deepening the struggle.

I wasn’t broken. I was stuck in a cycle that made suffering feel permanent.

And once I saw it? I could do something different.

It’s been over ten years since my last panic attack.

And yet—there is a world where I could have one again.

And I truly believe that this is a good thing.

Recovery Is a Muscle—And That Means You’ll Struggle Again.

Here’s the truth: your moment of struggle is your next opportunity to make your recovery stronger.

Recovery isn’t about never feeling anxious, never having intrusive thoughts, or never experiencing pain again.

It’s about building the ability to move through those moments without them defining you.

Because struggle isn’t the enemy.

It’s the weight that makes you stronger.

Think of recovery like strength training.

If you’ve ever lifted weights, you know that in order to get stronger, you actually need resistance. You need stress on the muscle.

And the same is true in recovery.

Every difficult moment gives you real evidence that you can handle this.

Not by avoiding struggle. Not by making it disappear.

But by showing yourself, over and over again, that you know what to do when it happens.

And that’s when everything changes.

Because when you trust your ability to recover, struggle stops feeling like a threat.

And when struggle stops feeling like a threat?

You stop fearing your own life and start living it fully. That’s where joy is found.

Recovery Is Possible—And It’s Already Happening

We talk so much about mental illness. It's time to start talking about recovery.

Because recovery is real. It’s already happening. And it’s available to you, too.