Let’s face it. Anxiety is a part of life.
That big exam is coming up soon and you haven’t even bought your textbook yet, you’re working a double shift this week, and you haven’t gone grocery shopping in a month. You’re stressed, and it’s affecting you – you’re eating too much or not enough, and you don’t want to leave bed, but you can’t sleep at night and it’s making you feel sicker than usual. But once the test is taken, you get your hands on your paycheck, and the fridge is restocked, your anxiety ends, and you’re back to frolicking around campus with your friends.
But for some people, anxiety is a constant worry and fear that affects their daily life. I describe anxiety disorders as living with a loud, obnoxious, and unpredictable imaginary “roommate” that never leaves you alone. This imaginary roommate sleeps in your bed with you, follows you to work, sits beside you in class, and whispers nasty thoughts in your ear when you least expect it.
It’s creative, too – particularly skilled at concocting only the most bizarre, irrational scenarios one could imagine, and reminding you over and over again that you can’t do that, you’re not good enough, you’re just going to panic and embarrass yourself.
When your friends invite you out, your unpredictable roommate is there beside you, shaking its imaginary head and saying, we both know that’s not going to happen tonight, don’t we?
It’s the source of all of the excuses you’ve made to get out of plans, and its presence is so vile, and so negative that it begins to affect you physically – your heart beats faster, your chest tightens, you sweat, and you’re almost positive, that yogurt you had for breakfast is about to make a guest appearance in the most inopportune of ways.
No matter how many times you tell your “roommate” that this “living arrangement” just isn’t going to work, it laughs in your face, handcuffs itself to you, and swallows the key.
But I have some good news – with time, you’ll learn a million and one ways to tell that pesky “roommate” of yours to back off, and some days, it’ll take a sick day.
I imagine it lounging on your bed, logging onto Netflix, and saying something along the lines of, you go to class. I’ll be here to annoy you when you get back.
Until eventually you become so good at taking control of your own life, thoughts, and actions, that your “roommate” doesn’t want to follow you around at all. In fact, you’re so good at ignoring it when it whispers terrible little nothings in your ear that it’s almost like it’s not even there anymore.
On occasion, it comes back for a visit – normally when you least expect it and at the most inconvenient of times. But you’re strong, and you’ve dealt with its meddling ways before. So when it comes time to part ways, you’re the one in control.
You’re the one showing your imaginary roommate to the door.
