A couple of nights ago, I was lying awake in bed when I should have been asleep. When it's time to turn off the lights, put my phone down, put on my sleeping mask and close my eyes, my brain shifts gears into overdrive.

That night, I was obsessing over a detail so bizarre and so irrelevant at this point in time; I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where to put the litter boxes in a house my boyfriend and I fell in love with. To explain, my boyfriend and I are house hunting. We are moving to another part of the state because he just started a new job that's an hour and a half away from we live now.

I could not stop agonizing over where the litter boxes for our cats would go; here is a brief snippet of my thought process:

"They can't go in the downstairs bathroom because that's the bathroom guests will primarily use."

"They can't go in the laundry room because it's too close to the front door and what if one or both of the cats runs outside Plus, I don't want litter boxes by the laundry area!"

"One has to go upstairs and one has to go downstairs; one will go in the living room and the other one will go upstairs in one of the spare rooms."

I was obsessing and agonizing over an irrelevant detail because we don't even own the house and don't know if we will own the house. But, that's how my anxious mind works. That is just one instance where anxiety works its sadistic magic. To get clinical about the matter, I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) as a teenager.

Of course, we are going through life changes consisting of moving, buying a home and starting our lives in a new community - it's only natural that we are both stressed out and anxious. Except this is how my mind works about 99 percent of the time. This is a mind of anxiety. I control my anxiety much better than I used to, but there are moments when I feel like everything is out of my control and I'm standing on the ledge of a tall building that I have to carefully scale or else I'll fall to my death. That is also a mind of anxiety.

A mind of anxiety is obsessing night and day over what you said to your significant other, best friend, boss, etc. and not hearing back from them. Your mind automatically goes to worst case scenario and you think you did or said something to offend them.

A mind of anxiety is picturing an outcome of catastrophe; I constantly worry about getting into a car accident or someone I love getting into a car accident, an illness or anything bad. I am a worst-case scenario thinker - that's how anxiety works in the mind.

A mind of anxiety is fearing that you will make a mistake and it will be the end of the world, even if it isn't a big deal.

Anxiety can be crippling; some days it feels impossible to leave the house because I am frozen in fear and worry for whatever reason or for no reason at all. It's just how anxiety works; it physically holds you, hostage, because your brain is telling you there's danger, even if there isn't.

If you encounter someone who doesn't understand anxiety or how it works, give them this simple metaphor: Imagine there's a hamster running on a wheel inside of your brain. When the hamster runs on the wheel, anxious thoughts form and your mind races, which can lead to a racing heart, sweaty palms and shallow breathing or a full-on panic attack. No matter how many times you ask the hamster to stop running or even slow down, the hamster ignores you and continues to run on the wheel and there's nothing you can do to stop the thoughts from forming.

The thoughts I was having about where to put litter boxes in the house we haven't even put an offer on yet are not unusual for me. I am always trying to plan ahead to avoid future stress, even if the planning ahead is futile or unnecessary.

It's just how an anxious mind works and it's okay to have these thoughts and recognize them as just thoughts. I'll deal with the litter box debacle when the time comes and the other debacles that will come with moving and buying a house.

If you are struggling with anxiety to the point where it interferes with your daily functioning, talk to a therapist, psychiatrist, or your primary care physician. You don't have to live with your anxious mind alone.