No matter what you chose, and what the outcome of that decision is, it also means that you are not doing all the other available options that you could do instead of what you chose.
As the purpose of emotional pain is to give you feedback when you experience loss, if loss is intrinsic and unavoidable in any decision you take, than this means that avoiding loss and emotional pain it is simply impossible.
There will always be some regret about the decisions you took, no matter how positive or negative the outcome is. Being insane is not experiencing anxiety as much it is about thinking that you shouldn't experience it or that you can overcome it through certain accomplishments or processes.
For example if you have to chose between going out or studying for an exam, if you chose to go out you will regret the fact that you are not studying and have a higher chance of getting a small grade, and if you stay in and study you will regret that you are not having fun with your friends. No matter what do you chose there is always regret.
One of the problem the person that suffered long term abuse is that he or she has no reference for what normal is, how could you know what does it means to be normal when you never experienced that in your life. In order to recover from abuse it is not only important to understand what is causing you to experience an abnormally high level of emotional pain, but also to understand what is a normal level of pain, or what is the best case scenario. In the words of Sigmund Freud the purpose of psychoanalysis is not to make people happy it simply to bring them from an abnormal level of unhappiness to a normal one.
Emotional pain it is simply build in to the essence of life, if you are going to avoid it you are also going to avoid life. Suffering from anxiety is not a disease it is a normal consequence of life, it is being paralyzed by it that is pathological. It is when you can live your life because of it, when you don't realize that you have to live with it and that it has no end.
Even choosing a lifestyle that is design to minimise risk in order to avoid your anxiety, it still dosen't mean that you won't experience anxiety as a matter of fact it is probably as a prevalent part of your life as it is part of anyone's life, perhaps even higher because by not being proactively involved in your life you experience more loss.
As anxiety is not being afraid of the things that could hurt you as much as it is being afraid of the things you desire, it is being afraid of missing out on experience. So every time you chose something you miss out on everything else, this simply makes anxiety impossible to escape and avoid.
