They say that having anxiety and depression at the same time is hell, but in reality, it is so much worse than that. Over thinking every little thing until you firmly believe that your life is over because you lost your car keys. They just got pushed under something on the counter, but because they did, suddenly everything in your life is becoming unhinged at the seams and now you're going to die because there is some life-ending threat that will happen and you won't be able to get away!
For those with an anxiety disorder, at some point, you've probably felt something similar to that. It feels crazy and ridiculous to sit and read it, but it's something that can literally happen at any point in time; over the slightest little hiccup in your everyday life. Of course, managing this can make you feel 100x better as you no longer plunge into hell whenever one of these attacks happen, but what is it like when you add depression into the mix? Well, that's when everything becomes much more difficult to deal with. I know that personally I've had anxiety attacks that lead into depression episodes that last days and it seems like I just can't get out. You feel absolutely worthless because of everything going on, and you just want to run away but you just can't seem to escape your own life.
It can be hard to explain exactly what you are feeling to those who don't have the disorders, as they just simply don't understand because it is a very personal feeling that you get. It's something that a lot of people who have them have dealt with them for most of their lives, and even we don't always understand what is going on. We know that it is not a life crisis when an attack happens and we know that eventually everything will be okay; but right now, in this moment, our entire world feels like it is crumbling through our fingers and there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about it. Sometimes we just feel the need to crawl under our blankets for 15 years and never come out again. However, because we cannot do that, we face the world every day with most of them never knowing the wrestling that we are doing in our own minds.
Just remember that next time you tell someone with anxiety or depression to “Get over it” or “It's all in your head”, we basically automatically write you off as someone who we cannot trust and you just don't have any idea in what we are dealing with. It's a horrible and terrible feeling to have to deal with, and getting judged for it just makes everything a lot worse. So please, if you know someone who is dealing with either one of these things, just let them know that you care about them and you are someone that they can go to whenever they need it (AND SHOW IT).
