There are many people who have extremely outgoing personalities, but also have anxious minds. On the outside, they seem fun and silly, but when people get to know them they know that the outgoing personality is just a shield. The silly individual will be cracking jokes left and right, that is the only part that can be seen by those around them. On the inside, the person is worrying if the others are laughing at them or with them. They also struggle with the idea that they might only be laughing as a sign of respect. They are respecting the person because the fear of hurting their feelings is too much. A person with an anxious mind thinks about all of the negatives before getting to any of the positive outcomes. The constant 'what if's' for situations seem to be an everyday occurrence. In every situation, every single potential outcome is thought of as a negative one. For example, if a person with an anxious mind texts someone asking about something, they think of all the reasons they might be ignoring them rather than the idea that the individual might be busy doing something that doesn't involve being close to their phone.
I can say I am one of the people who are crazy and outgoing but worry about every single thing in my life. Even the smallest of things gets me worked up; such as being early to any place that I go to because the idea of being late anywhere seems like it'll have a detrimental outcome. One of the worst things that can be said to a person with an anxious mind is to "relax" or "it'll be fine at some point" because that only adds to the already stressful situation. It seems as if the people think that you won't be okay unless you take it down a few notches. It really isn't that easy. It's not as if we want to be stressing about every little thing, it just happens.
It becomes worse when it is coming from your close friends who know you the best or when those friends add to the stress by bringing up all of your flaws. It seems as though they want you to change who you are, which seems like a ridiculous request. Everyone is the way they are for one reason or another, flaws and strengths combined. We hate people seeing us at our worst so if we think we might begin to cry or show anything other than a crazy, fun side then we go to a place of total isolation. A place where we can be alone so no one needs to see the bad side of ourselves and think of us as anything other than silly people. Only those closest to us know that's not the case.
School is a whole other type of stress. The aim for perfection can cause an anxious person to go to the extremes. They want to get the highest grade possible so they might skip out on some of the basic needs for life such as getting enough sleep and enough food. People will tell you "you need to have more fun" meaning you should be going out more instead of staying in. But grades are more important and it has been discovered that the thought of doing badly on an exam outweighs the thought of going out to have so called "fun". If the person were to go out then the grades would be the only idea on their mind so it would be virtually pointless to go. The supposed fun that would be had would not be a thing due to the worry.
It can be a confusing life for people with outgoing personalities and anxious minds, but it is a life that has to be dealt with. There are ways to contain that stress. Some of the ways that I have found to be effective are working out and doing yoga. It can be considered cliche to do yoga, but it is actually helpful in reducing the anxiety.
