I have suffered from anxiety (along with a couple other things) for a few years now and just recently in the past year opened up about my struggles to those around me. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done to see the way peoples faces change when they hear the things you have struggled with but I have been met with an outpouring amount of love and support.
One question I have been asked frequently since people have learned about my illness is “what does anxiety feel like”, now that’s a really tricky question to answer because no one definition fits every person’s experiences.
So what I have decided to do is share some of the things I feel and some of the things that people I know who struggle with anxiety as well feel. But before I start I just want to say just because you struggle with anxiety, it doesn’t make you any less of a person.
-One thing that I really struggle with is staying still. I am constantly moving. Whether its tapping my foot or moving my knee up and down when I’m sitting, or moving positions of how I am sitting every 30 seconds, its something I definitely struggle with. Sometimes my friends will point it out that I am moving a lot and I wont even have realized it and we will laugh about it.
-Another struggle I have is I tend to pick at the skin around my thumbs or on my lip whenever I get nervous about something. I notice I do this a lot when I am taking a test or around someone who makes me nervous.
-This one is kind of funny; but every time I see something that is off center or a picture frame that isn’t perfect, or something isn’t symmetrical on a shelf I get fixated on it and it drives me bonkers, this is funny because the rest of my room is like a tornado came through and hit it, but don’t worry, all the frames and shelves are perfect!
-One thing that I really struggle with is very sudden loud noises, it sets off an alarm in my head that causes me to start freaking out and its very hard to calm me down inside, now this is a predicament considered I am apart of a college bowling team, lol.
-I have a tendency to focus on one thing and find all things that could possibly go wrong with it if I am struggling with my anxiety at that moment.
-I take things way more personally than I should and that has been one of the biggest struggles of dealing with my anxiety. If someone makes a joke, my mind immediately goes “wow maybe they really do think of me that way” and it all goes down hill from there.
-When I am having an anxiety attack I tend to stop talking and stare of blankly not even really thinking of anything in particular, more so just kind of lost for that point in time.
-I know some people I know become over obsessed with having everything perfect around them, not one thing can be out of place, and nothing can be messy.
-Some people can’t have any caffeine after a certain time in the day because that causes them to start overthinking about everything.
-Many common feelings of anxiety include: shortness of breath, feeling like you’re drowning, loss of control, loss of appetite, over sensitive, scared/jumpy, and many others.
If you ever feel any of these things it doesn’t mean you necessarily suffer from anxiety, you may just be overwhelmed in that moment. Some ways to counteract the overwhelming feelings is by doing breathing exercises, one exercise I absolutely love is 4-7-8 breathing, it is where you breathe in for 4 beats, hold for 7 beats, and exhale for 8 beats, it’s a proven study to slow everything down and refocus. Another way to counteract is to get a glass of ice water and just sip on it and try to relax through that, hot showers/hot baths are very good to help relax you, reading a good book is helpful, resting your eyes helps as well, becoming mindful of your surrounding and observe what is around you takes your mind off of things for that second.
Everyone struggles from anxious feelings throughout their life, its inevitable and doesn’t make you any less of a person.
I hope this article brings some guidance and solace to those who need answers or help calming down sometimes!
Mack
