Personal Narrative: Living With Anxiety

When someone thinks about their mental life, some may think “I’m perfectly healthy” or “I don’t have mental problems”. Yet, for others, they may think “Yeah I have some mental issues” or “Yeah, I get nervous from time to time”. For me, anxiety has always been a problem of mine. I can’t even begin to describe how many times it has gotten in the way of me trying to enjoy an event, or spending time with family, because my mind is constantly racing. I’ve struggled with anxiety since I was a kid. Not only do I struggle with it, but members of my family do also. I believe that I may have gotten my anxiety from my family but it’s always been something I didn’t talk about.

Ever since I was young I’ve had anxiety. Every single interaction I’ve ever had has been carefully calculated and thought out before it has happened. Every situation has been worried, confused, and excessively mulled over ever since I can remember. Every anger-filled conversation has left me crying and shaking, and every sad one left me worried and sick to my stomach. Headaches were common,

Anxiety is a common occurrence and emotion in everyday life. Yet there are several individuals today who suffer from great pangs of anxiety and feelings of panic at such extremely high levels that it becomes quite debilitating. A normal, everyday environment can become so overwhelming that the day itself can stop dead in its tracks while the sufferer rides through the wave of intense emotions and thoughts which seem to be going a million miles a minute and showing no signs of stopping or slowing down.

This is my life everyday, there is no stop or pause button. Anxiety is a battle with myself to try and find the sanity in this parallel world I now live in. Everything from going to lunch, going out with friends, walking in the hall, and talking to adults are all daily tasks that provoke this voice. However the worst part is when no one believes you. I knew something was wrong, yet I was put down and told I was just anxious. I didn’t even know what I was feeling, and now I was alone. The people I loved the most brushed it past like it was nothing, leaving me confused and afraid.

The anxiety started when we checked into the hotel. I was in Syracuse with three of my best friends, ready to have a weekend full of exhilaration and laughter.

One of the most common mental health disorders, anxiety, has had an astronomic affect on human beings, influencing the entirety of an individual on a bio-psycho-social level. Globally, anxiety is the catalyst for the execution of specific significant political and military actions. Although, anxiety can propel one forward, excessive anxiety is debilitating and the effects are cataclysmic. Experiencing the crippling effects of anxiety firsthand has manifested to me the power and dominion anxiety can have over one's life. With the help of cognitive behavioral therapist I found the inner strength to cope and abate my own anxiety levels. My experience has not only stimulated my interest in the field of clinical social work but has also shown me the major

On our way up the stairs to our unit, a girl named Jada came up behind me. “So why are you here?” I was thrown off by the personal question she asked so casually. Only an hour prior I had arrived at the facility and was introduced to the other eleven teenagers.

All my life, I have suffered from generalized anxiety disorder, which can make it difficult to do mundane tasks and educational requirements. For example, giving speeches, taking exams and quizzes, and having to communicate with other students that I do not know. I have been sheltered most of my life, which causes things that would be considered basic to other people to scare me. After analyzing my anxious tendencies, I came to the conclusion that the root of my anxiety comes from having seperation anxiety from my Mother after my Father passed away, which made me scared to talk to people, resulting in speech anxiety. My main fear with my speech anxiety is that I will receive a bad grade on my speech or not do well enough academically. I strive

¨ Good Good... my mom and I went to the museum and went shark watching.¨

This feeling was unusual because as a youngster, I spent most of my childhood going on acting auditions and

Although there is a plethora of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and alcoholism that run rampant in my family; I never spoke about mental illness with either of my parents until I was diagnosed with social anxiety, OCD, and panic disorder at 18. At that age I wasn’t even aware that anxiety was more than just feeling nervous or that it was a treatable diagnosis. After describing the symptoms of what I now know to be a panic attack to my general doctor, she referred me to a psychiatrist who prescribed me three pills, two were for anxiety, and one which was for my panic attacks.

It was the day of the surgery, I was so nervous that I could have passed out at any moment from my anxiety. I felt sicker then I had in years, I would have thrown up if I had had any food to eat in the past twenty-four hours. When me and my family got to the hospital my anxiety went up another level and I was practically shaking, the smell of all the chemicals they use wasn’t helping my nausea any either. When I was in the room getting ready for surgery I was overwhelmed with what was about to happen so I ended up confiding in my mom that

My power would be a poetic one. Me embracing one of mankind’s most dangerous, prolific and effective enemies, one that plagued humanity for centuries: Anxiety. I would the power to at will induce extreme amounts of anxiety onto anybody in my line of sight.

When I was about twelve, I self diagnosed myself with anxiety. I was at a river in Austin with my mom and my two aunts. At that age, I was insecure about everything that had to do with my body. “Come on, get in!” I heard my over enthusiastic aunt yell from the dirty, brown water. I wanted to get in, but my mind was telling me, “Everyone is going to think your body is ugly”, and “Don’t get in, just sit and wait for them to come back”, so that’s what I did.