From more than one perspective, it's hard dealing with anxiety. The first perspective, of course, is of a person living with it. The second belongs to family and friends of those dealing with it. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, generalized anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness in the U.S., yet, it is often misunderstood, and therefore underestimated.

If you deal with anxiety like I do on an embarrassingly regular basis, you'll know where I'm coming from. If you're a friend to an anxious person, here's some things they more than likely want you to know.

1. We know that we're being ridiculous.

There's not a lot to this one; we just know that our worries and irrational thoughts are, well, irrational. It only sucks for us more when you remind us of this fact.
"Calm down", "relax", "you're freaking out over nothing," the list goes on. We know.

2. We get anxious about being anxious.

Anxiety is not a good feeling, to say the absolute least. When we're not experiencing waves of nausea and our heart rates are normal, we're waiting for those nausea spells and uncomfortably high heart rates.

3. Our minds essentially are miniature minefields.

It only takes ONE provoking thought to get those palms sweating again. Maybe we should talk less about Donald Trump and more about puppies.

4. We're waiting for "calm down," to have a positive effect on us, too.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe it'll work in the next life (still, probably not).

5. Panic attacks. Enough said.

If you're unlucky enough to see us go through one of these suckers, all you need to do is tell us to, "remember your breathing," and give us space. We know how to take it from there. These terrible sensations of helplessness leave both parties pretty much helpless. Only a few minutes of space, accompanied with slow breathing, will help.

We have pretty awesome advice to give you. Whether it be stage fright or first date jitters, we understand it all, and we're pretty awesome at teaching people how to breathe properly.

7. We're not overly sensitive.

Stop worrying about upsetting us or freaking us out. Whether it be an opinion, something that happened that you think might freak us out, or a simple conversation topic, we can handle it. Besides, the last thing we need is to suspect that you are: A. hiding something from us, or B. are mad at us.

8. We're the best to have around during conflicts/arguments.

We're naturally overwhelmed by confrontation and conflict, so we're the best people to have around when you need help getting out of a rising situation.

9. We really do love and appreciate you.

We're inevitably going to be off in our own world a LOT of the time, battling the wars inside our heads, but it's true, after an exhausting day, we want you to know that you rock, friends. Thanks for putting up with our ridiculous antics.