Anxiety, My Old Friend

Anxiety sucks. There's no better way to put it.

I've been experiencing a spike in my anxiety levels for a long time now. They started to rise back when the pandemic hit, which happened to a lot of people, and just kept rising until I finally realized that I was not living any kind of life I wanted to live about two months ago.

I have driven the car once since the pandemic hit, which is also the only time I've left the house by myself in that same time frame.

In the last six months, I've left the house maybe six times, usually only for medical reasons, though we did once go to the park, which was lovely.

My anxiety levels have been so high that I can't sleep. Until a few weeks ago, I was lucky to sleep every other day.

Through all of it, my husband has been my rock. I don't know how I'd make it through all of this without him. My mom has also been a huge help. They're my two biggest supporters.

I saw my doctor a few weeks ago, and she prescribed me a new medication that would help ease my anxiety, stabilize my mood further, and help me sleep. It seems to be doing all those things, which is fantastic. I'm very excited to be feeling better in general.

Anxiety is a horrible thing to live with. It's also a medical condition that can be treated.

I have to say, though, I'm so tired of the difficulty sleeping, the doomsday thinking, the rumination, the circular worries, the hyper fixation on things that happened twenty years ago and probably nobody else remembers. I'm tired of the unrealistic fears—things that probably won't ever happen but I'm terrified of.

I'm tired of the stigma. I'm tired of people telling me to "just relax" or "calm down" or "you're being illogical." I'm tired of ignorant people invalidating my medical condition.

This is a video I found a few years ago that expresses how not to talk to someone with anxiety.

I found many of these things to be something someone's said to me at some point or another in my life--even someone who was trying to be supportive. Often people don't know what to do when first encountering mental illness, and they can fail to be helpful or even make things worse without realizing it.

Education is important.

Here's another video: things you should say to people with anxiety!

There's so much help people can give, and so much damage they can do, as they try to provide help and reassurance to people struggling with anxiety. Share these videos with others if you would find that helpful!

Photo Credit: Xavier Sotomayor, Elizabeth Lies