I know, I know. Another post about how it feels to be an anxious person. Another article about the 'other side' of anxiety, the part that no one seems to understand... but hear me out. Anxiety is something that everyone feels. Those moments when it feels like your chest is physically caving in on itself, or those nights when you can't sleep because your mind seems to be a thousand places at once. Anxiety creeps up on all of us in its mysterious ways, and I'm here to tell everyone that you are not alone.

I've been told that even as a young child, I've always been anxious. I'm assuming this means that I've never known anything different, so I've learned on my own to cope and 'deal' with it. I've picked up many habits that I'm sure aren't the greatest, some that even destroy myself in little ways. I have never known anything other than the anxious life (I didn't choose the anxious life, the anxious life chose me).

There are many days where I cannot stomach the thought of food because if I eat, my stomach will start to do flips and I'll surely throw up. There are days when I am so tired from not sleeping the night before, and there are days when all I want to do is cry. Out of nowhere, right in that moment, the only thing that ever seems to be the right thing to do is simply cry. There are days and nights where I know exactly why I am feeling this way, and there are days where I have no clue, it just seems to be a random happenstance.

There are certainly days when I wake up and I can't stand to hear a single noise because if I do it will overwhelm me to the point of crying. There have been nights that I have gotten panic attacks in my sleep, and nights where not following my routine has made me feel like I can't ever fall asleep (yet I am too exhausted to get up and complete the routine).

There are good days though. Days where I can walk around and I feel like I can ask someone for help. Days in class when I'm not afraid to raise my hand, or when I'm not afraid to talk about the things that go on in my head. There are days, too, when friends have come up to me about their anxieties, and what kind of a friend would I be to invalidate their feelings just because I might feel that I feel 'worse' some days?

The truth about anxiety is that everyone at some point in their lives feel it, and it is perfectly okay that you feel this way from time to time. One thing I have learned about anxiety is that for someone who doesn't regularly experience it, a panic attack, or just feeling anxious for longer than a few minutes (and in normal situations that you would expect anxiety to occur), it is the end of the world for them.

And I am here for you when you feel like your world is crashing down or coming to an end.