3 Ways Anxiety Runs Your Life

Do these normal people feel like this too?  Why am I the only person who feels like this all the time?

"haywire"-Porsche Brosseau 

I have dealt with anxiety my entire life.  It creeps into bed with you at night and slips into the shower in the morning.  Anxiety is the monster that only you can see and, even when you do see it, it might be too frightening for you to even acknowledge it is there.

1. Anxiety Affects Everyone.

While many people may think that would make it easier, the fact that everyone feels some degree of anxiety makes it difficult for those who suffer from anxiety more severely.  The Anxiety and Depression Association of America define the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder as anything from fatigue to irritability to stomach issues to insomnia or difficulty sleeping.  I can (almost) guarantee that everyone reading this does not have GAD but does feel they exhibit one or more of those symptoms to some degree.  Since no one can really tell exactly to what degree someone feels something, it makes empathy for the anxious difficult for those who might not understand the severity of someones anxiety.  Those with anxiety may not realize that it is not normal while it also makes it difficult for those with anxiety to have the confidence to acknowledge the problem, after all they probably feel anxious about that too.  

2. Anxiety Drains Confidence

If you think back to the last obstacle you faced and overcame, could you say you would have still overcome that obstacle if you didn't summon the courage to?  Would you have ran that 5k if you felt like it was something that could ruin your life?  Do you think you could have won that fifth grade spelling bee if you didn't have the confidence to guess on that last word even though you weren't actually sure?  Someone with high anxiety could very well dread those situations, regardless of their ability.  This is because anxiety can drain someone of their confidence, like a thirst of despair that cannot be quenched and, like many things, anxiety is easy to break away someones confidence but slow to build it back up.

3. Anxiety Causes Anxiety

I doubt that anyone has ever asked an anxious person how they are doing and had that person reply, "I feel horrible, desperate even.  I don't even understand why."  We already talked about that a little bit in the first point.  I doubt you even noticed the person who never volunteers to give presentations at work making their self appear small in a corner away from the rest of your co-workers.  Maybe you did notice them, but did you approach them?  If you did, did they talk or did they try to avoid you?  It has nothing to do with you, don't worry you don't smell, but it does have everything to do with anxiety.  Imagine your entire life.  Imagine all the triumph and what makes life worth living to you.  People who get grabbed by anxiety feel like they have no hope of that.  The anxiety causes them to feel like they can not succeed until they have not and by then even if they try they have a sea of could not and would not and regret to swim through.  

It is something that effects us all.  How we deal with it and to the degree it effects us is something we must all figure out.  However, the hardest part of anxiety is acceptance.  Those with anxiety need to understand that they are not alone and that others would and do want to help understand their anxiety, if you are unsure as to what is causing your feelings than hopefully this provided some insight.  

If you have any comments, advice for others with anxiety, your own story about anxiety, or if you are anxious due to all the talk about anxiety leave a joke in the comments to help us lighten the mood.