First, let me start off by saying that anxiety and stress are NOT the same thing. Anxiety is a real mental illness that affects quite a bit of people, myself included. It's worse when it's doubled with depression. Anxiety is hard to deal with and here are five ways that it affects daily life for those who have it.
1. Checking Out at Grocery Stores.
Going to the store was hard enough as it is, but then going to check out what you are planning to buy? It's really hard. You always have the fear that the cashier or those behind you in line will judge you for what you are buying, even if it is the most normal of items. You try and make a bee-line for the self-check-out area while you can just so you can avoid having to converse with someone who you do not know and being judged with what you're buying.
2. Making Phone Calls.
Now, nobody really likes making phone calls, but when you're suffering with anxiety, it becomes 10 times as worse. Before you even pick up the phone and dial who you need to call, you start playing the conversation in your head, as if practicing what you should say before you say it just to get the call over with and to be sure you don't allow whoever will be on the other line to judge you for what you need to say. You also begin to worry about if the person you are talking to is judging how you sound.
3. Trying to go to Sleep.
It takes hours to try and fall asleep when you have anxiety as you begin to replay random events that had occurred and begin to wonder if you should have done something differently. Not only that, but then what's about to happen in the future pops into your head as well, causing you to overthink and become super anxious and fearful of what might happen when you wake up to start your regular day. Thus, taking even longer to try and fall asleep.
4. Stairs vs. the Elevator.
As much as it is an exercise to walk up stairs, especially a numerous amount of flights, someone with anxiety feels more comfortable doing more work taking stairs than to squeeze into an elevator with many other people. Being in tight spaces with unfamiliar people causes someone's anxiety to go sky-high and could potentially also cause claustrophobia. Although, the stairs are not always such as safe-haven either. There will come a time when the stairwell is extremely tight and you end up getting bunched against someone going the opposite direction as you. You're not entirely safe no matter where you go, but the stairs are your only salvation to get you to where you need to go.
5. Any Sort of Notification.
Seeing an email, text, missed call, etc. from someone can be a real hell for someone with anxiety. They feel like it's something bad, that it's because of them, or that it's some really bad news that is concerning them. Always thinking about the worst possible thing that the notification could be about. Seeing the text "We need to talk.." is extremely nerve-wracking and stressful to someone with anxiety. Too many thoughts run through their mind as the try and respond to the text that pushes one's anxiety over the edge.
There are many more ways that having anxiety can affect someone's daily life. It really is a struggle and it is something that cannot go away. People just try and live with it the best that they can and hope for the best while expecting the worst.
