Trying to explain anxiety to someone who doesn’t suffer from it constantly is simply impossible. I think that’s part of the reason why living with anxiety is so difficult. You feel a certain way, but you can’t express to others the reason why you feel that way, which makes life even complicated. It’s a vicious cycle. You want to go one day without feeling scared, but you can’t. People don’t understand you… they don’t understand why sometimes you need to remove yourself from a situation because you’re just too anxious to deal with it. They don’t understand why you have to do certain things just to have a moment of peace. They don’t understand what is happening in your head. Your mind is racing, thinking about all of the possible situations that could go wrong. The thoughts consume your mind, and quite frankly, they take over your entire body. You lose control, suddenly your palms start to sweat, your stomach starts to ache and you can’t do anything to stop the feeling.
Not feeling understood just makes everything even worse. When someone criticizes you for feeling a certain way, it takes anxiety to a whole new level. Not only do you have to worry about all the thoughts that you are having, you now have to be anxious about other people judging you for your anxiety. It’s really a constant struggle between yourself and others. You want to make everyone else happy, so you keep your anxious feelings trapped inside so you don’t annoy anyone. However, if there is one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s not to ever hold in how you are feeling. Keeping feelings bottled up is one of the hardest, and worst, things to do. It causes even more added stress and anxiety, making daily life complicated. It causes you to become angry and bitter, on top of the already anxious feeling you constantly have. It’s pretty much a lose-lose situation.
Even though living with anxiety is an everyday struggle, it has taught me a lot about life itself. It has taught me how to be strong, even when I feel like giving up. It has taught me that I am not weak for getting help. This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned. Getting help does not mean you are not strong, it just means that you want to live the life you deserve. Life is such a beautiful, amazing thing and everyone deserves to make the most of it. I have also learned not to let other people bring me down. The only person who can create a happy life is yourself, so even on the days when my brain is the most anxious, I have learned to live with it and open my eyes to really enjoy life. I have learned that even though some people will not understand what you are going through, it’s OK. It’s frustrating, but it is something that you have to deal with. It is very hard to understand the struggles that someone else is facing. The last thing I have learned is that everything is going to be OK. In the very end, all of my anxieties turn out to be OK. Life throws you curve balls at times, but you have to learn to deal with these things. I have learned to take a step back, take a deep breath and relax because everything will be just fine.
Even though living with anxiety is very difficult, I have learned so much about myself through dealing with it. I have learned to accept help, not to be brought down by others surrounding me and to mainly just relax… because everything will be OK.
