Everyone has anxiety. It's a simple fact. Some definitely more than others, but there is something that can make all of us feel the nervous butterflies fluttering around in our stomachs or make our hands jittery like they're pumping with coffee instead of blood. In our current society, the mental health struggles that most young adults go through have gotten so much publicity that a sort of community has arisen from it.

This has been great for someone like me who has struggled with an anxiety disorder since I was seven. Still, sometimes I feel like the ways in which people perceive anxiety can be kind of skewed. It's clear that people know and have come to agree that having anxiety is a common thing, but they're kind of at a loss as to what that entails.

Sometimes this can even mean that most people will brush off your anxiousness as something common and less than what it actually is to you. Anxiety can affect people so much more than just nervousness in your stomach, but it can take a big physical toll on you when it decides to rear its big ugly head.

1. Loss of appetite

Before a big job interview or maybe a big exam, its normal to feel the nervous stomach. When your alarm first goes off in the morning, you head straight for the bathroom and its not just to brush your teeth. TMI, I know, but hey its a normal bodily function that is enhanced when you feel especially anxious. After this, usually one doesn't want to gorge themselves with french toast or pancakes, but will settle for a big cup of coffee.

For someone with an anxiety disorder, it goes a little bit beyond that. This type of anxiety is something we feel most days, all day. We can forget meals really easily and not even realize it until someone mentions the time of day and a little lightbulb goes off in your head that you should've probably eaten twice by then. Its not usually even a conscious skipping of a meal, its just that your body almost seems to shut off your sensors for hunger if you're feeling especially anxious.

2. Shortness of breath

You know that feeling you have when you've walked up the stairs at school or even the one after you've been running for like ten minutes straight? That's a chest tightness that someone with an anxiety disorder knows all to well. The feeling as though you can't take a breath big enough to quench the desire for it in your lungs can be wildly frustrating, but its a common occurrence for me.

It feels like since my brain is running a marathon at all times of the worst case scenarios that can happen to me that day, the rest of my body is trying to catch up to its pace even though I'm not physically being burdened.

3. Dizziness

My personal enemy. I usually don't even talk about this physical effect because honestly, its the scariest one for me. It's a loss of control over your surroundings as they start to move slightly the longer you look at them. For me, this can often lead to passing out. It doesn't last forever, but every second that the world around me doesn't sit still like it's supposed to seems like an eternity. The dizziness isn't what necessarily causes me to momentarily lose consciousness, its the fear that goes along with being so out of control.

I don't live with these struggles all day, every single day. Currently, I am the happiest I have been in a really long time, although my anxiety doesn't ever truly leave me. A lot of people in my life don't even know how severe my disorder can be. It is something I have become an expert at hiding because more often than not it seems easier that way.

Some people live with a lot worse, and some people have never even felt any of these things at all. No matter what, though, every single one of us struggles with something that is beyond our control and has made us want to give up at some point. Be kind to those around you because you truly cannot always see their struggles outwardly.