"Just get over it, it's not even that big of a deal."
"You're fine."
"You're freaking out over nothing."
"You need to calm down."
"You're acting crazy."
"Just find a way to get it off of your mind."
"You need to stop thinking about it."
These are all things people hear when they are going through an anxiety attack, and they are things that people shouldn't hear while they are going through one. Whenever I say anxiety attack, I do not mean something that just lasts a few minutes and goes away. I'm talking something that lasts days or even months and doesn't go away for a long time. I am talking about an issue that could be so small that it sits there and eats at your mind.
The thing about anxiety is once something is in your head to worry about, it doesn't go away. You do not think that everything is going to be fine. You can't just get over it. There is no way to get it off of your mind. You think about this worry when you wake up in the morning, while you're with friends, while you eat. You think about this worry while you're watching television, while you're working out and when you lay in bed at night. You think about it all the time for days and days at a time. Then it finally goes away, but it wouldn't be too long before a new worry crept up.
Sometimes these worries can suck the life out of a person. I have had times when my anxiety has been so bad that all I did was lay in bed and think about whatever I was worrying about. I felt at work like I couldn't function. I couldn't focus on anything. Sometimes while doing my homework or taking a test I would blank out because the thoughts in my mind seemed to eat anything else that was there. This would just build to the stress and make it worse.
One thing that I have learned from anxiety is that Google is not your friend. I could Google "what is wrong with my skin" and it would somehow end up saying that I have cancer or AIDS. I could Google something about loving my boyfriend, and it would probably tell me that I'm not in the right relationship. I could Google anything, and somehow I could find a negative article to put me down and make me feel bad about myself.
The purpose of this article is to get people to understand what anxiety is. Anxiety is something that people truly cannot help. Do you really think that it is fun to sit there and worry about stuff all day long? I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. We do not choose to have it, so saying stuff like "get over it" to us does not help. About 18 percent of the population has anxiety. That is 18 out of every 100 people that you see. It is a lot more common than you think. Therefore, whenever you see your friend or a family member freaking out, remember that they cannot help it, and try and get them to do things that require a lot of time and energy to help them get their mind off of it.
