Almost everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their lives. Whether it's over a test, new promotion, facing a challenge in their life, or anticipation of one thing or another. However, not everyone suffers from the debilitating affects of an anxiety disorder. Thus, what many people do not face themselves, they don't understand and fail in learning to love someone who does. If someone you love dearly faces this challenge on a daily basis, here's five things you should always keep in mind.

1. Anxiety is not simply fear.

Although anxiety is often associated with nervousness or a certain fear, those you struggle with GAD do not always know why they are anxious, their bodies just randomly decide to go into flight mode. Symptoms often include shakiness, heart palpitations and/or racing heart beats, a hard time breathing or catching ones breath, irritability, seclusion from others, and so on depending on the individual.

2. We cannot control when an anxiety attacks occurs.

Although we would love to give you some notice or forewarning, as we would love to have one for ourselves, we can't control when an anxiety attack will occur. We just feel and have to learn to cope. All we ask is understanding and support when those attacks come because we often feel alone, scared, and confused during an attack.

3. There's nothing you can say or do to take it away, just be there.

Again, quiet support is all we need. We don't need you telling us we'll be okay, we need you to SHOW us. Sometimes grabbing and holding on to us helps, or sometimes giving us space and knowing when to step in. You just need to be there and let us know you aren't going anywhere, you love us and we aren't too much of a mess for you to handle, and you will walk us through this difficulty one step at a time. Assurance and affirmation does wonders.

4. What may not be a big deal to you, may be a huge hurdle for someone who struggles with anxiety.

Something as simple as ordering food, deciding what we want to do or where to eat, choosing an outfit for the day, meeting new people, walking to class, phone calls, unexpected change, going somewhere, leaving the house, having a disagreement, assignments or responsibility, and on and on are just a few examples of the things that can send us into an attack of anxiety. To be honest, sometimes merely waking up or going to sleep can bring anxiety and often times depression knocking on our door. It's a constant companion, it just merely has differing degrees.

5. Anxiety disorders are often accompanied by other cooccurring issues such as depression, OCD, mood swings, etc.

Please understand, living with anxiety and it's effects can in turn cause many other issues to arise. Anxiety often pushes us to seclusion from others which can cause depression to set in. Dealing with the side effects of anxiety increases irritability and mood swings. The truth of the matter is, anxiety is an inner war that attempts to suck the very breath out of you. We aren't trying to be rude or shut out those that love us, we're just trying not to drown on dry ground.

So if someone you know and love suffers from GAD or any other anxiety disorder, please just know that we are not our disorder, we just function, live, love, and respond differently than you. Show some love and educate yourself on what you can do to support those who struggle with this disorder.

Thank you for taking some time out to read this article and learn a bit about GAD.

Much love,

Brittany