I Have Anxiety But I'm Not Depressed | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Health and Wellness

I Have Anxiety But I'm Not Depressed

"I try to enjoy every part of my day- even though it is challenging most of the time."

1937
I Have Anxiety But I'm Not Depressed
morewallpapers.com

My anxiety comes in waves. I do not have a constant episode every second of every day of my life. When I do have episodes where my anxiety spikes, it's usually in the middle of the night and for no reason. Occasionally, I will have episodes that last an entire day or maybe an entire week. My point is that my life is not legitimately filled with constant anxiety. One of the most important things that I'd like people to know is this: Just because I have anxiety, that doesn't mean I'm depressed or even suicidal for that matter.


When you look up anxiety in a search engine or on social media, you often find that it is linked to depression and suicidal thoughts. I understand that a lot of the time, the two conditions are linked together. However, this is not the case for me. I suffer from anxiety, but I also love life most of the time. I would be devastated if I knew that I had to cut it short. I try to enjoy every part of my day- even though it is challenging most of the time.


I spent most of my high school career in a constant state of anxiety, I felt as though I never had a break from it. Every morning I would wake up for school and automatically be in a state of anxiety and every night as I went to bed, it would worsen. As my senior year came around; I decided to make a change. I wanted to go for the weekly workout routine, eating better and genuinely try to be more optimistic every day. Obviously, that did not work. However, I ended up changing the way I went throughout my day in little ways.


I started to hang out with friends more, even if I didn't want to at the time and I am grateful for doing so as it improved my overall mood dramatically and I had more people to talk to when I needed support. I changed my eating habits from snacking on junk food the whole day to having three, well-established meals at generally the same time. I drank the right amount of water that I need to. I also worked out randomly as I was never able to truly force myself to create a fitness plan and stick with it.


Through my freshman year of college, I decided to create a ten-year plan. I know that my next three years are going to be spent in Nursing school and I know where I am going after that. I know when I want certain life events to happen and I've talked those over with the people who matter. Having events in the future that I am excited for truly benefits my outlook on life and moving forward with it.


In order to move forward and clear the stigmatisms about mental illnesses, we need to be open about them. As a society, we need to clear the idea that openly discussing the struggles that we go through daily as neurodivergents is taboo and should be kept in secret, behind closed doors, not even being discussed in the family. People who struggle with mental illness need to come forward and share their experiences in order to bring them out into the light.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Chandler Bing

I'm assuming that we've all heard of the hit 90's TV series, Friends, right? Who hasn't? Admittedly, I had pretty low expectations when I first started binge watching the show on Netflix, but I quickly became addicted.

Without a doubt, Chandler Bing is the most relatable character, and there isn't an episode where I don't find myself thinking, Yup, Iam definitely the Chandler of my friend group.

Keep Reading...Show less
eye roll

Working with the public can be a job, in and of itself. Some people are just plain rude for no reason. But regardless of how your day is going, always having to be in the best of moods, or at least act like it... right?

1. When a customer wants to return a product, hands you the receipt, where is printed "ALL SALES ARE FINAL" in all caps.

2. Just because you might be having a bad day, and you're in a crappy mood, doesn't make it okay for you to yell at me or be rude to me. I'm a person with feelings, just like you.

3. People refusing to be put on hold when a customer is standing right in front of you. Oh, how I wish I could just hang up on you!

Keep Reading...Show less
blair waldorf
Hercampus.com

RBF, or resting b*tch face, is a serious condition that many people suffer from worldwide. Suffers are often bombarded with daily questions such as "Are you OK?" and "Why are you so mad?" If you have RBF, you've probably had numerous people tell you to "just smile!"

While this question trend can get annoying, there are a couple of pros to having RBF.

Keep Reading...Show less
legally blonde
Yify

Another day, another Elle Woods comment. Can’t us blondes get through the day without someone harping at us over the typical stereotypes about who we are? I never understood why a person was judged based upon the hair color they were born with, or the hair color they choose to have (unless you dye your hair blue like Kylie Jenner, I’m still trying to understand why that’s a trend). Nevertheless, as it should be assumed, not everyone is the same. Not all blondes like bright colors and Lilly Pulitzer, and not all blondes claim to identify with Marilyn Monroe. I think the best suggestion to give to people before they make such radical claims is to stop judging a book by its cover. Or in this case, stop judging a blonde by her hair color.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

A Year At JMU As Told By 'Bob's Burgers'

The world's greatest university meets the world's greatest show.

1788
Bob's Burgers
collegian.com

A year at JMU promises many great adventures. The journey of becoming a duke and learning what being a duke is all about is really exciting and a lot of fun. Of course, we all know that James Madison University is the greatest university in Virginia (perhaps even the entire country). There are many events and moments at JMU that are cherished and remembered by all dukes.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments