I came across an old article about a girl who described what her mental illness looks like that I thought was beautiful and decided to write about what my mental health looks like. I know I've been an open book about what I've gone through with my anxiety, but writing about it is never easy. It's very raw, and tough.

Well my mental illness looks like:

A blonde girl with blue eyes who, once she turned 16, developed horrible anxiety. I come from a background of divorced parents (who luckily reconciled) and was bullied during my grade school years. Once I got to high school it didn't get any better, my first year of high school was tough at a new school where I made no friends. I later learned that these all contributed to my own anxiety.

I battled my mental illness on my own for the first year and a half. My parents had a hard time accepting it themselves so I was on my own. My anxiety looks like a girl who is anxious over every little thing. A girl who panics over the idea of having to go somewhere new where she knows no one. Anxiety is crying for no reason and having no idea why.

Anxiety is crippling, and sometimes just needing to be taken care of but not wanting to admit it. Anxiety is the fear of being too clingy or annoying. Anxiety is internalizing everything in fear of annoying someone too much with your problems.

But my anxiety has made me a stronger person, my anxiety has taught me and still teaches me how to put myself first and take care of myself. Anxiety is teaching me that you shouldn't be ashamed of it. Because chances are someone knows exactly how you feel and is too scared to speak up themselves so by you opening up they don't feel alone. Anxiety taught me to be a stronger person.

While I try not to let my anxiety control my life I learned that you take the good days with the bad. Celebrate the small successes you make, and if you backtrack a little don't be too hard on yourself. We're battling our minds daily, and again we're warriors for doing it.