What is Anxiety?

Anxiety's a common reaction to live events, like taking a final exam or speaking in front of a crowd. But when it becomes really uncomfortable and makes day to day life hard to live, then it's a problem, or even what we call a disorder. I know, I've lived with anxiety for a long time. My own anxiety feels like it's about everything. I worry about so many things in so many ways. And it impacts my life big time. I stress about things that are about to happen or might happen, and it means I can't really focus on where I am or who I'm with. Sometimes my hear pounds, I speak really fast and I kinda snap at people. My family gets really frustrated with me. When it's really bad, I have a knot in my stomach all the time. I even feel depressed and then I just want to be alone. I feel like if I do something, I'll screw it up or something'll go wrong. So a lotta times I'd just rather avoid it all. I feel much better just staying at home and maybe having a drink.

Turns out anxiety's a very common mental health symptom. It can be the main sign for generalized anxiety disorder, which I have, or social anxiety disorder, which is when people have a fear of being in public or meeting new people. For those of us with social or generalized anxiety disorders it's really difficult to live the way we want to live. Some people have anxiety about really specific things, are afraid of heights, snakes, spiders, or something else. Now these are called phobias and when people avoid these things, the anxiety mostly stays away. But when people can't avoid their phobias, that's a real problem.

        Some people experience anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder or obsessive- compulsive disorder, which can make people really overcome with anxiety. In these conditions, anxiety can be so intense that people are at a risk of suicide, and they use alcohol or drugs to cope. Sometimes their lives feel like they've come to a halt. I'm one of the lucky ones. A doctor told me how to get treatment that would help me. And it did, I understand now what my anxiety feels like when it happens, and what I can do about it. I learned some great coping skills. And even just naming it helps me keep it in perspective. Sometimes my anxiety can still get pretty big, but it doesn't seem to last quite as long as it used to. My anxiety was treatable. For most people, this is true. You can get your life back to where you want it to be. I know, I've got mine back. 

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