From our Book Store Take Back the Power ! A healthy sense of self esteem comes from a strong sense of authenticity within one's self. A sense of who I am.... but most people with an anxiety disorder do not feel a sense of 'who I am'. Instead the question is, "who am I ?" Articles Self Esteem and Anxiety Disorders by Bronwyn Fox Healthy Self Esteem and anxiety disorders are mutually exclusive. There has been very little recognition of the role of self esteem, or lack of it, in the development of anxiety disorders. There is also very little recognition of the role that self esteem plays during the recovery process from a disorder. Yet it becomes the definitive answer to permanent recovery." (1) A healthy sense of self esteem comes from a strong sense of authenticity within one's self. A sense of who I am.... but most people with an anxiety disorder do not feel a sense of 'who I am'. Instead the question is, "who am I ?" Intellectually and physically we have matured but unknowingly we have held our emotional development back. This is the reason why we don't feel a sense of Self and this lack of a sense of self impacts on our ability to fully recover from our anxiety disorder We can see this separation between our intellectual and emotional development in our understanding of our anxiety disorder. We may know intellectually that our panic and anxiety symptoms and fears won't hurt us,