Living with anxiety is an everyday challenge. From the moment you wake up to the dreams that haunt your sleep. I can not speak for everyone who has anxiety but I can speak for myself when I say the biggest issue when I start exhibiting my anxious symptoms, is when others not only notice, but also feel the need to comment on it. It’s common courtesy; you shouldn’t publicly comment about someone with visible abnormalities.

“You shake a lot.” “Your hands are really sweaty.” “Are you always THIS quiet?”. “It’s so cute when you get nervous.” or “You just want attention.”.

Anxiety is not cute. Hyperventilating is not attention seeking. Stuttering and shaky hands are not precious. Going out in public in constant fear that someone will look at us and judge us for our outfit, or the way we walk and stand, is not adorable. Having the sudden urge to physically run away from any type of social situation is not attractive. We do not use our mental illness as a tactic to get attention from others.

"The blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don't know what it is. ... What I've found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany's. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there." -- "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote