So someone close to you has anxiety. You think "I know she can be a little crazy, but how can such a small thing like anxiety affect her so much?" Don't (read: never) fall into the lie that anxiety is something small. And please don't ever say that to her. She already has the feeling that everything is in her head; while that's true, she can't get away from it.

Her anxiety is both a mist that surrounds her in the morning as she wakes and a darkness that shrouds her at night as she gets ready for bed. Anxiety stays at the back of her mind, and try as she might to push it aside, it finds its way to center stage to crowd the spotlight once again.

It will overtake her, and you must be ready for it. Yet at the same time, don't act like this is "just like every other time." She may realize afterwards that her anxiety popped up once again, and she'll do her best to beat it down like a whack-a-mole. You won't see that though. While she is crying in her bed or praying (read: screaming, yelling, arguing, etc.) at God in middle of the night, she'll text you to see if you're okay, because she didn't mean to go off on you. It's just not like her. She'll say something like "Sorry about tonight. I don't know what got in to me. Please forgive me."

But she does know what got into her, but to admit that to you will make her vulnerable when she tries so desperately to be strong. She'll chalk it up to being human, and that's probably the closest thing to the truth in her mind. In that moment, remind her that she is strong, because sometimes the heaviest burdens are the ones nobody else sees.