I'm an incredibly strong woman who's tackled some insane sh*t the past few years of my life and my dreams have no place for my anxiety. This is something I've learned through my struggles with anxiety and the nights spent alone in panic attacks in my bedroom.

I used to wish that someone could save me from my anxiety, but then I realized that I'm the only one who can. This was a powerful recognization because I'm 100% capable of whatever I set my mind to, despite what my anxiety says.

I've noticed that my anxiety causes me to massively doubt myself and my relationships with other people. It causes me to need reassurance that my friendships are going fine because I'll overthink something as simple as someone not replying to my text or not liking my Instagram post tagging them. These are incredibly simple and stupid things to stress over, but these kinds of thoughts will plague my mind more frequently than I'd care to admit.

This overthinking effectively ended one of my really close friendships this past summer, which hurt me way more than I'd like to admit. It also caused me to re-evaluate this problem and work to stop those negative thoughts and worries as soon as they happen.

I know my anxiety doesn't control me or how I respond to situations, but it makes it a lot harder to handle myself. After having close friends ditch me over the summer because I was relying on them too heavily for emotional support taught me an important lesson; I have to be incredibly choosy about the people I let into my life. I appreciate my friends that don't judge me for being myself and voicing my anxieties.

I hate the idea that my anxiety is just something people will have to accept about me; I'm constantly working to overcome it and the small hurdles it places in my life. For example, I started a new job today that requires me to commute by bus which made me incredibly anxious this entire morning. My anxiety was screaming at me to just crawl back into my bed and accept defeat.

However, I can't let my anxiety stop me from doing my thing because that's not the kind of girl I am. My anxiety just provides hurdles for me that many other people don't have to deal with it, but it makes me a stronger person. Having to fight those negative thoughts in order to get through them makes me one of the strongest people I know.