What It Feels Like To Live With Anxiety Every Single Day.
That’s what anxiety can feel like — day in and day out. Everyone has anxiety at some point in their life. However, some people can live with anxiety constantly, and it can interfere with education, career, relationships, and so on.
I’d love to show everyone exactly what anxiety feels like every day because god knows how many times I’ve tried to explain it to others — but nobody seems to take any notice unless I suddenly sob uncontrollably, even then I’m often told to…
“Get over it, it’s not that bad,”
“Oh cheer up, stop being so negative.”
“Why can’t you just forget about it?”
“Why do you always worry so much?”
Let’s be honest, that kind of advice f*****g sucks. People might think they’re being helpful, but instead, it’s making us feel a million times worse. Living with anxiety can be debilitating and affect every aspect of our lives. What might seem insignificant to one person could be incredibly treacherous to another.
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I’ve lived with anxiety for countless years. It started when I was a child and has continued throughout my life. There’s no magic cure for anxiety, and we can never fully make it go away. However, we can try to limit it with medication, therapy, and support from our nearest and dearest — but it will never disappear entirely.
Tounderstand anxiety and what it feels like to live with it every day, we first need to know all the signs and symptoms.
What are the physical symptoms?
- Rapid heartbeat
- Insomnia
- Teeth grinding
- Nausea
- Sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Headache
What are the psychological symptoms?
- Inability to relax
- High levels of distress
- Persistent worry
- Agitation
- Difficulty concentrating
It’s incredibly hard to ‘get over it’ when your feeling this way — that’s like telling somebody who has broken their leg to get up and walk, it feels impossible when you’re struggling to stand up straight because you’re dizzy, unable to catch your breath, trembling, or even nauseous.
So what does living with anxiety feel like?
We’ve gone over all the psychological and physical symptoms, but it’s the little things that can make the day seem unbearable.
Number 1 — Breathing
Sitting in a crowded room watching the tv and suddenly noticing that your breathing seems too fast or too slow — can make you feel like you’re not breathing properly. So you’ll try to act as normal as possible and try your best to control your breathing so nobody will notice.
Number 2 — Music
Have you ever been listening to music, and a song comes on that you absolutely love, so you immediately turn it up — only to feel incredibly anxious, wondering what the neighbors might think? Will they judge me? Will they think my music is rubbish? Will they complain? Will they gossip about me?
Number 3 — Worried about what people think?
Whenever me and my partner have a slight disagreement, I’m convinced that all the neighbors heard us arguing, and I’ll feel incredibly anxious to see them.
When I’m slightly late picking my son up from school, I’m terrified that they’ll think I’m a bad mother, when I’m walking down the street, I’m wondering what people are thinking about me — things like, “what is she wearing?” “why is she walking like that?” Why is her hair so messy?” The list goes on and on.
Number 4 — Biting inner cheeks
Just like when people bite their nails, anxiety sufferers can automatically bite their inner cheeks instead.
Number 5 — Forgetful
I’m often anxious about many different things, so I become incredibly forgetful. I can walk into a room and suddenly forget what I went in there for. I can also be thinking of something, and then five minutes later, I’ve forgotten everything.
Number 6 — Mood swings
Feeling very emotional one minute, then turning into an angry hormonal teenager the next. I’m often very irritable — especially when I’m feeling anxious about something, and sometimes I have no idea why I’m so angry.
Number 7 — yawning
This sort of relates to number one, but often when I’m anxious I notice that I breathe a lot more than usual, which leads to excessive yawning.
Number 8 — pinch bottom lip
When I’m stressed or anxious — I constantly pinch my bottom lip, and I often do this when I’m slightly zoned out staring at something ahead of me.
Number 9 — Needing the toilet much more often or not able to go at all
I’ll need to go whenever I’m feeling anxious, or I may feel like I need to go, but then when the time comes I physically can’t.
Number 10 — Play with my hair
I’ll sometimes pick a piece of my hair from my scalp, hold it with my thumb and index finger, then I’ll slide it all the way across it until I’ve reached the end. Or I’ll twirl a piece of hair around my finger, over and over again.
Anxiety isn’t easy, in fact, It’s bloody hard. Dealing with it on a daily bases can make you feel so lonely and misunderstood. If you have anxiety, then you deserve so much respect because you’re badass.
So take a deep breath and smile because you rock ♥
Appreciate the creator