I have a recurring dream that I am swimming in the ocean. The water is calm, and there is nothing but blue sky above me. The sun is glistening over the ripples my hands are making as I swim towards the shore. My family is ahead of me, already reaching the sand. Just when I think I am close enough myself, a wave crashes over my head. I cannot reach the ocean floor. I begin to panic. I frantically try to swim towards the surface, but one wave is followed by another, and another, and another. I wake up every time gasping for air, never knowing if I make it out.

It began when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Sometimes I think I was just born anxious. It first started with going to school. My poor mother had to pry my hands off of her steering wheel in which I clung to for dear life. I would then go to class with my eyes red and puffy from crying.I didn't like feeling stuck, and I wanted my mom to come back and rescue me. While I don't remember every single one of those dramatic mornings as they were so long ago, she sure does.

Usually I would end up in the nurses office, coming up with a different ailment every time. It is safe to say she knew me very well by the end of elementary school.There were many times where I let my paranoia take over my entire state of being, to the point where I couldn't bring myself to go anywhere or do anything. I hated feeling out of control. I allowed the intensity of my fears to affect the quality of my livelihood, and the livelihood of my family and friends. I felt like many times there was a barrier between us; a barrier where either side couldn't fully seem to understand one another.

I couldn't comprehend why someone would get so frustrated with me. I would think, can't you see what I'm going through? In turn, for many, they had a hard time watching me torture myself, and I'm sure they thought, why can't you just snap out of it?

The truth is, there were many times when I didn't know how to, and I felt like my body was prisoner to my mind. My family would try to help me, but realistically, in the moment, I couldn't hear a word they were saying. I tried everything from therapy to meditation. When an anxiety attack was triggered, it felt like I had tunnel-vision. I would feel scared, alone, confused and crazy all at once. Every time would be different from the next, and there was no telling how or when I would manage to calm myself down.

Then one day, my mother told me to find something I could use to get out all of the fears, thoughts, and worries I had in my mind. She asked me to think about something I enjoyed doing and use that to get everything off of my chest. So I sat down and on a piece of paper, wrote down all of the things I like to do. By the time I was finished, the list I began writing turned into pages and pages of feelings that I had, some of them, I didn't even realize were still in my head.

When I put the paper off to the side, I felt lighter. I didn't feel the "weight of the world" on my shoulders so much anymore. Writing became my outlet. It was something I could do to not only express myself, but when I am feeling like I may have an anxiety attack, I know it is now what I can use as a distraction.

As I get older, I am beginning to see with practice, that I am capable of overcoming my own anxieties and reaching the surface of the water. To anyone else who may be going through it too, it is going to feel scary at first, maybe even seem impossible, but it is absolutely attainable, and know, you are never alone.

Anxiety is a feeling almost everyone can experience at one point or another in their lives. It can come in all forms, and at different magnitudes. Though it may come and go in waves, it is the way you choose to handle it that determines your outcome. Use an outlet of your own. Find a hobby. Hang out with friends and family. Go on a vacation.

Don't listen to any negative comments that you might hear from someone else. Just focus on finding something that will essentially bring you back to yourself, and in turn maybe you won't feel so heavy all of the time. Take things one step at a time, and work on getting back your mental freedom.

For those of you who may be curious about what goes through the mind of someone like me, below are some of the things one might experience during an anxiety attack:

1. When other people are around, you try and hide it.

Hiding it never works. It ends up making you feel about a million times worse.

2. Your heart starts beating out of your chest.

You pace. You sweat, and you might even begin to hyperventilate. There may be something that triggers this such as a subconscious thought or maybe even nothing specific.

3. Your mind races.

I cannot, will not, be able to focus. I would think about every possible scenario that could go wrong: What if something happens? What if this ends badly? Is my mom okay? What if something happens to her? How can I fix this? What if I can't?

4. If you are in a crowded place, you have to get outside and fast.

If I were in a mall or a house party, I'd have to get fresh air. If I didn't, I would end up feeling constricted. My throat would feel like it was closing. Essentially, it feels like I am choking from the inside-out. Typically, times like this, I would be out the door before anyone had the time to notice.

5. You begin to hate yourself and think, why can't I just be normal like everyone else?

There would be so many times I would be mid-anxiety-attack and get so angry with myself, never once thinking that all of this was being caused by me, and that I had the ability to just stop altogether if I wanted to. I would just end up panicking even further, pacing the floor, cursing myself over and over again.

A further tip: