Ever tipped back in a chair too far and felt your stomach drop? You didn't quite fall, but you thought for that split second you were a goner? That is what it feels like to live with anxiety. It is constantly feeling uneasy, worrying about things way more than you should, or over-analyzing everything. You don't mean for it to happen, and you don't mean to take everything so seriously, but there you are with knots in your stomach and a hammering in your chest, and you cannot even explain why.
Those with anxiety are being attacked with something that they cannot escape from, and saying, "You'll be fine!" does not help at all. People also need to understand it is not a choice. People with anxiety don't just one day decide to feel like they do. It chooses you. Just because someone that doesn't suffer from anxiety doesn't understand, doesn't mean the feelings aren't real, or you should feel any less of a person due to something you cannot control.
People that suffer from anxiety are also constantly having to tell themselves: just breathe, you are fine, keep going. Tiny tasks can send us into a mad frenzy until our work is done. And text messages with a period after "hey," or an intended sarcastic tone (or so we think) send our minds wild. This person doesn't want to talk to me. What did I do wrong? Should I respond? Little things that people without anxiety think nothing about worry us constantly.
There is no on-off switch for anxiety either. We look fine from the outside, but on the inside our minds are going a million miles a minute. And no matter how weird or bizarre we sound, it's real to us. I wish more people understood this.
But to all my fellow anxiety sufferers, our anxiety does not make who we are. We are not crazy, worrisome or timid people, our brains are just a little different from everyone else's. Remember, your anxiety doesn't define you, and it doesn't make you a weak person.
