Anxiety isn't what the media makes it out to be.

First and foremost, the little memes with you and your anxiety having little conversations in your own mind is completely (COMPLETELY) wrong. When you're having an anxiety attack, or even just suffering from some anxiety at the moment, it isn't a conscious, sound situation in which you understand that really nothing bad is going to happen. Your anxiety takes over your thoughts and that whole "conversation" in your head is more like this:

You don't even realize that there really is nothing to worry about!! You just KNOW that there is EVERYTHING to worry about.

Secondly, there is a HUGE difference between being nervous and straight anxiety.

Let me break it down for those of you at home without anxiety.

THIS is a woman that is nervous about getting a good grade on her next test or perhaps that the love of her life, Tomlikes Sally instead of her.

THIS is a bit more like anxiety. It's hard to show anxiety really in a picture because everybody handles it in different ways. There are the tense panic-ers - the ones that their muscles tense up and their entire body vibrates with fear and adrenaline as stress is filling their head and not allowing normal bodily functions to work properly. Then there's the dynamic duo community who have anxiety with their depression or vice versa - the ones that stays inside and needs to be alone to worry about everything, their entire being believes that they are worthless and nothing will ever turn around. There's also the bombshell criers - the ones that start to cry when anxiety begins to set in and once the bomb is ignited, every ounce of panic flows out with each sob, and each sob with a new worry. And finally, the tight-wound prowlers - the people that bury their anxiety until someone tests them or maybe even stands too close, and when that happens, watch out for the snap. Even a lighthearted joke could make these people lash out because they literally have no room in their mind space for humor or just another obstacle.

I've tried to explain anxiety to people, but usually unsuccessfully. It's just not something that words can really describe. It doesn't make you weird or freaky or unable to control yourself to have anxiety. It's something that can be unavoidable and that people should really treat like they would a concussion or a broken leg. Would you tell someone with a broken leg to just get up and walk it off? How bout someone with a severe concussion and amnesia to just, ya know, remember what they knew yesterday and start thinking straight again? So you can't expect that telling someone with anxiety that there's nothing to worry about and that they're overreacting will suddenly rewire the chemicals in their brain, can you? It's a crazy thing, anxiety. It kills your spirits, steals your logic, and destroys your "normal" physical functions.