There are hundreds of stereotypes about people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Attention-seeker, lazy and depressed, drama queens, weak and unreachable, negative and self-absorbed. Although people may think this is what we are- this is nowhere near the truth. People with anxiety are a different type of people, we're not crazy; just different than others.
I was diagnosed with anxiety at a young age. I was worried all the time about what people thought of me, what was said about me, and I worried about what was going to happen to me all of the time. Having anxiety at the age of 11 was not a normal situation a kid my age should be living with-- but I lived with it.
I would come home from school crying, worried that someone said something bad about me or that I messed up and people were judging me. In high school it only got worse, teenagers are mean. They use your weakest habits against you and make you feel even more terrible on top of what you feel.
I would give anything to rid of my anxiety because I am not an attention-seeker, I would give anything to keep the attention away from myself. I certainly am not self-absorbed; why would I want people focusing on me when I'm all the time worried about what people are saying. Lazy and depressed is only true in some cases, not all of them. I have been unreachable at times, but only because I am focused on what I'm doing wrong- not realizing what I was ever doing right.
Crowds are the worst for people with anxiety. Standing in a crowd makes them feel like everyone is staring at them and everyone is judging them. It's worry, it's always worry. I don't know about others with anxiety, but with me- I avoid crowds at all costs and I'm not sorry for it.
Besides living with anxiety, dating with anxiety is the absolute WORST. People with anxiety in relationships constantly need reassurance, they worry that their partner is thinking about leaving them or you can't trust your partner. People with anxiety are always worried, that's what anxiety is. Don't think just because people have anxiety, we are damaged. We can still love you- we just have a hard time beginning to love you.
Anxiety is a label, a medically-diagnosed label. It's a part of someone, not their whole demeanor. We have good traits about us, anxiety isn't all we are. Next time you judge someone with anxiety; try and walk in our shoes for once, you'd think twice about judging us.
