Anxiety is a burden that has laid upon my (and many others') shoulders for as long as I can remember. It is inevitable and incurable. It is a disease, a disorder, a monster. It comes with no warnings and strikes when you are most vulnerable. How is this something I can just "get over?"

People often misunderstand the real definition of anxiety disorder. In literal terms, anxiety disorder is "a common mental illness defined by feelings of uneasiness, worry and fear. While anxiety occurs for everyone sometimes, a person with an anxiety disorder feels an inappropriate amount of anxiety more often than is reasonable." For many, it can take over their every day actions. Tasks such as cashing a check at the bank, buying groceries, or making doctors appointments are major triggers for anxiety attacks. These are much more extreme than what others show. Often times, anxiety attacks can be silent or even seem invisible. It all happens inside of your mind. Anxiety attacks in a definitive form is defined as, "a combination of physical and mental symptoms that are intense and overwhelming. The anxiety is more than just regular nervousness. The anxiety is often a feeling of immense, impending doom that makes many people feel they're about to die, or that everything around them is breaking down." These are uncontrollable. They happen quickly, and sometimes they boil up all day until it suddenly erupts. Sometimes the attacks are major outbursts of panic and sometimes the attacks happen quietly, and mostly inside your head. Some ways of determining symptoms for an anxiety disorder are:

-fatigue

-restlessness

-sweating

-racing/unwanted thoughts

-irritability

-insomnia

-nausea

-trembling

-feelings of uneven heartbeat

Those who do not endure anxiety think anxiety attacks to be over the top or just "attention drawing." The feelings of an anxiety attack are the most unpleasant, most terrifying feelings that can creep into you. For me, most times it feels as though somebody is sitting on my chest and it is going to explode, and then comes the panic and fuzzy thoughts. If it were possible to "get over it," we gladly would.

Victims of anxiety disorder are very sensitive and do not like to be teased, ignored, or criticized/judged. We take things to heart and over-think every little thing that is said to us or that happens. It is inescapable, it is without warning, and it is the worst enemy. Educate yourself, and then judge. There is no possible way to know what happens inside someone's brain.