Anxiety is probably the most common mental disorder in the United States. It develops from genetics, brain chemistry, personality and life events. It’s more than just feeling nervous to speak at a public event. It’s a mental disorder characterized by excessive worry or fear strong enough to interfere with your daily life. With that, many people don’t realize things that a person does is because of their anxiety.

1. You disappear without notice.

Anxiety can hit you anywhere or anytime. It doesn’t matter if you’re in class, at work, at home or at a grocery store; you just need 15 minutes alone to recollect yourself and your thoughts. People who don’t understand anxiety may see this as rude or weird, but it’s because they don’t experience it the way you do. I’ve had people tell me, “You don’t look like you have anxiety. You seem so cool with everything.” To that I reply, “Anxiety isn’t something you see. It’s invisible.”

2. You freak out over the time it takes for someone to respond to your text.

Anxiety can blow a lot of things out of proportion whether you send a text to your mom or your friends, you begin to wonder if you said something wrong or weird. Am I weird? Am I rude? Am I annoying? Was it something I said?

Your brain starts overthinking and making you feel like you're less of a person.

3. You over check things.

In school, teachers always said to double and triple check your homework before turning it in, but what if you check it too much? Your anxiety makes you a perfectionist; whether it’s homework or checking to see if the door is locked, you check and recheck things multiple times. Sometimes you know that something is perfect but your anxiety won’t let you relax.

4. You don't go to parties.

It’s not that you’re antisocial. You actually do want to go to the party. You tend to worry about big crowds or loud music but really all you want to do is have a good time like everyone else. You feel like you don't fit in with other people. You feel like no one understands who you are as a person. You know your anxiety won’t let you relax and because of that you end up skipping the party and staying inside your room.

5. You let opportunities pass you by.

As a perfectionist, you often think that you’re not good enough for opportunities presented to you. You become afraid of failing and making a fool of yourself. Because of this, you convince yourself to not take the opportunity at all. Except at those rare times when you completely feel like going outside of your comfort zone, which is rare but it happens. In these few moments, the things that happen will benefit you so much!

6. You hold on to your phone too much.

Sometimes it’s hard for you to just sit and wait. It makes you uneasy to see people busy with something while you’re just sitting there, as a result you need to have your phone or something to fidget with.

You also feel like you'll miss something important if you're not holding onto your phone constantly.

7. You don't make new friends as easy as you'd thought.

It may seem like you don’t want to make new friends but you actually worry too much about the first impressions that you’re making on people. Once you’re afraid you’ll convince yourself that making no impression is better than making a bad one. You end up keeping to yourself even though you really want to branch out and meet new people.

8. You dread going to school/work.

Even though you’ve done it a million times before, your anxiety doesn’t care about how many times you’ve done your routine. It hits when it wants to hit. Before going to work or school you may feel your heartbeat race or have sweaty palms. You know everything will be the same but you never know what could happen.

9. You cancel plans.

Making plans is tough because in the moment you feel so confident and ready to try anything. Then when the day comes for your plans you feel like backing out. You feel like crying, you feel like hiding, you feel the disappointment that you carry. The worst thing that can happen is when you have to cancel the plans that you made in the first place.

10. You rehearse what you're going to say.

This could be for any time. School, work, phone calls, emails, etc. You do this because you’re afraid of making a mistake or forgetting what you had to say. You also don’t want to make a fool of yourself or seem weird.

Practice makes perfect, right?

11. You probably bite your nails.

You tend to bite your nails because you’re nervous and you’re either thinking about everything that could happen, or nothing at all. Your mind just kind of zones out and you don’t realize that you’re doing it. You could try multiple times to stop this horrible and disgusting habit, but it’s just generalized anxiety. It’s completely normal.

My anxiety is something that I’ve never shared or talked about publicly; but I do suffer from it. I do all of these things in this article that I mentioned. I know I’m not alone in this. I know there are other people out there that feel the same as I do. It’s something that I deal with every single day and it’s something that I’m trying to accept about myself. Life doesn’t get easier, you just get stronger.