For a long time, anxiety has been the big elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about it or admit that they deal with it. However, the reality is that many people deal with anxiety issues. When you google "anxiety," you get a world of medical sites offering symptoms and prescription medicine that is supposed to remedy the problem.
In our society, mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, have been labeled taboo subjects; many have called them "the last taboo." Simply admitting that I have anxiety makes me anxious, and that is not how it should be. People need to be able to talk and express their feelings. So what is it really like? What is the truth about this elephant that so many people try to ignore?
The truth is that anxiety can be crippling. It can keep you from fully living life because you are plagued by nervousness. Anxiety can come in many forms, such as nervousness in social settings, nervous thoughts, inner jitters, shakiness, and panic attacks. The list goes on. Anxiety can be caused by many circumstances; it can be genetic, developed, or caused due to a traumatic event.
Many people do not understand anxiety, because it is not always rational. They ask me, "Why worry about something that may never happen?" or, my personal favorite, "Why don't you just stop worrying?" HA! We wish it was that simple. One of the worst parts of having an anxiety disorder is the fact that you know the things you worry about don't make sense, but you can't stop thinking about them.
Anxiety can be embarrassing. When you are in the gym having a great work out, and all the sudden, your heart starts racing, you feel like you can't catch your breath, you get dizzy, and everyone starts to look at you, it sucks! You feel weak because you feel like you can't handle stress that everyone else can just brush off. People with anxiety did not ask to be this way; it is not something that can be just turned off.
The general insensitivity towards people with anxiety is appalling. Just the other day I heard someone say "People who are always early are no fun, because they have more stress and too much anxiety. People who are always late are more fun, because they don't worry about things as much." When I heard this, it hurt, because, as a person with high anxiety, I am always early and I work way ahead of deadlines. The person's comment, even though they probably never even thought it was offensive, made me feel like I was no fun to be around just because I have anxiety.
The truth is that anxiety and mental health issues can affect anyone, no matter their class, race, ethnicity, gender, or intellectual abilities.
It is time to change our attitudes about anxiety disorders, and the way to do that is to talk about the issue. I personally do not even like to call it a disorder, because that implies that there is something wrong with someone who deals with anxiety. It's not wrong, it is just something you have to deal with. I had to learn to adapt my life to deal with it, and I believe that dealing with anxiety has made me a stronger person, because I can persevere through things that scare me.
I will have to deal with anxiety for the rest of my life, but it WILL NOT stop me from achieving my dreams.
