Everyone experiences anxiety at one time or another but there is a huge difference between normal anxiety and a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

Normal anxiety includes:

• Having the ability to control your anxiety
• Your anxiety does not interfere with daily activities
• Your anxiety only lasts for a short period of time

Anxiety disorder includes:

• Feeling like your anxiety is uncontrollable
• Having trouble getting and being relaxed
• Obtaining intrusive/ anxious thoughts
• Feeling restless and fatigued
• Dealing with nausea and stomach problems

A little bit of my story:

I remember many times, mainly in High School, when I felt so anxious that I broke down crying in class. My anxiety became so uncontrollable that I felt as if there was no way out. When I was in that state of mind it was hard to realize anything else going on around me because the only thing that was evident to me was the way I felt since the emotions were so strong. I remember feeling so lost. I felt so abnormal and inhumane for feeling so out of control. I felt so out of control because I did not the root of why I was so anxious, my brain couldn’t obtain that information. All I knew was the way it felt to have a whole classroom ignore you when you’re having a panic attack during class. If you have any idea what what that feels like, please research more about it. I can tell you, from my own personal experience, taking the time and learning about anxiety disorders lead me to decrease my panic attacks by a tremendous amount.