Yes, Anxiety Is A Real Thing!

You tell people you’re not too comfortable about hanging out with them. You tell them you’re not okay with open public spaces. You tell them you’d rather stay at home than go out to a carnival/fair.
And they think that you think you’re too cool to hang out with them, or that you’re so full of yourself, and even worse, they start disliking you because you avoid their company.

But I wish I could make people understand what really goes on in my mind in such times.

Are you terrified of certain situations too, or of a lot of things in general? Do unfamiliar situations scare the hell out of you? Well then, hi-5. And that feeling has a name, by the way, anxiety.
I wonder how such a random word could define so much about so many of us.

So many people think that anxiety is just that little unpleasant feeling you get sometimes. But in reality, that’s just 2% of the actual thing.

I’ll tell you what anxiety is really like. Its like being trapped in a box where you can’t breathe, or like drowning in an ocean where you can’t scream for help, or like being stuck in a haunted house for days without any escape. Its like screaming your lungs out but nobody hears you, its like a thousand eyes staring at you every damn minute, scrutinizing each and every moment of yours, right from how you breathe to how you blink.
You become conscious of even the slightest of changes in the way you walk, about how you swing your arms when you walk, about how you spell the simplest of words, and even about how you say hello.

There is no escape, there’s only moments of helplessness accompanied with self-loathing and self-pity. Everybody is better than you, and you’re the worst among the worst.
You tremble when a stranger approaches you, your insides churn from the fear of not being heard clearly when you talk, your head spins from the horror of having to repeat yourself, you chew out your nails so much that they bleed.

Some of us do need a helping hand, or a kind word of encouragement, or a warm smile when we come out in open to face the world. It might be easy for to socialize and make new friends at the blink of an eye, but for some us it’s a nightmare. We might have volumes and volumes to talk about, a dozen opinions to share, but we keep them all bottled up within from the fear of being ridiculed.

We’re in an age where the concern for human lives and understanding between humans is at its peak, in spite of the ills that plague our societies, and its high time we start giving importance to such silent aspects of people’s personalities; the ones that feed on our fears and alter our ability to lead happy lives. And anxiety is just as important and dreadful as any other mental importance, and it needs all the attention it can get.

Remember, a problem is a problem. You might have a heavier burden to bear and tougher problems to deal with, but if something is a problem for someone, then its probably beyond their capacity, and they have the right to worry about it. Don’t mock someone for something that might seem minuscule to you, because for them, its equal to the end of the world. So pick up your bag of smiles, lend a helping hand, make life easier for someone.

P.S-> Calling out for help is completely okay. Reach out to people, talk about your problems. There are people willing to help you. Don’t ever consider yourself unimportant, you’re as important as bananas are to‪ a monkey‬. smile emoticon

P.P.S-> Anxiety is not something you can’t overcome. Trust me, you can battle it.