Everyone, at one point or another, will find themselves thrown into a situation that will make them uncomfortable. I highly doubt that all seven billion (give or take) people in this world enjoy public speaking, exams, confrontation, or medical procedures, but these are things that a vast majority of us will have to experience.

What drives me nuts, though, is when people go around claiming that they have anxiety.

The medical definition of anxiety disorder is "a chronic condition characterized by an excessive and persistent sense of apprehension, with physical symptoms such as sweating, palpitations, and feelings of stress."

Now, if the 90% of the population that claims to have anxiety or an anxiety disorder were to actually experience this, it would be much more common to see these symptoms. I understand that mental health is more about feeling rather than seeing, but disorders such as anxiety do have their visible symptoms.

By these people saying that they are afflicted with such a condition, they continue the trend of the romanticization of mental illness that has only rose over the past few years.

Plenty of people will post on their social media or say, "My anxiety is bad today" without an actual diagnosis from a medical professional.

I understand that all people get anxious, especially in stressful situations, but this is entirely different from having anxiety, where the feelings do not go away and are not temporary.

People who claim to have anxiety are therefore discounting the things that people who actually experience it go through. The feelings of being anxious that people often misdefine as anxiety are caused by being unable to cope emotionally with your situation, which is a part of growing up, which is why these emotions are particularly common during adolescence and early adulthood when we grow emotionally very rapidly.

In accordance with this, we must experience some nerves in order to grow, otherwise, we will not learn how to handle things emotionally.

The wrong way to approach this is to blame these feelings on a disorder that you do not actually have. Basically, states become disorders when something that is normal acts in a way that is not normal, not when we experience something uncomfortable.