20+ Things People with Anxiety Understand All Too Well

Those who struggle with anxiety live life in constant worry. Your mind is racing 24/7, and you’re tired because sleep in nonexistent. During the day your brain is playing out possible worst-case scenarios that never occur and at night you repeatedly replay those thoughts. You feel like you’re living in hell and anything can affect your inner peace. Anxiety is horrible, and it doesn’t cut you slack. The following is a list of 20+ things people with anxiety understand all too well:

1. Sometimes your anxiety doesn’t make sense because you sit there and worry over unknown reasons.
2. You complete a task and later doubt if you did it right.
3. You have various types of distorted thinking such as, paranoia, illogical, negative, and/or intrusive thoughts.
4. You unintentionally make yourself sad and lonely.
5. You experience physical symptoms such as sweating, palpitation, migraine, headache, shortness of breath and feel like you are chocking.
6. You minimize your accomplishments because you feel unworthy.
7. Anxiety makes you think your loved ones will abandon you.
8. You have unpredictable bouts of rage or irritability.
9. You constantly feel sick even though you’re not.
10. You feel fatigued due to prolonged anxiety.
11. You become hypervigilant by excessively focusing on possible dangers.
12. You can’t get up in class to throw trash away.
13. It feels like you can’t function, and processing your own thoughts is next to impossible.
14. You can have an anxiety attack, and no one would notice because it’s internal.
15. When someone looks at you and turns around to speak to someone else, you automatically think they are conversing about you.
16. Making a phone call or going to a medical appointment is scary.
17. Wearing what you want is impossible because you think you’re unattractive or you’re worried of what others may think.
18. You count your money numerous times before paying.
19. You miss opportunities because you constantly second guess yourself.
20. While sleeping you wake up suddenly because you feel like you’re chocking or out of air.
21. You don’t have the ability to relax, so you feel restless.
22. When you’re overwhelmed you want everyone to be quiet and when they’re not you get extremely agitated.
23. You can become abnormally hypersensitive.
24. At times you feel like your dying due to chest pain and a racing heartbeat.
25. Anxiety can make you talk fast and stutter.
26. You feel uncomfortable in public.
27. At times you have terrifying dreams about situations that scare you.
28. You feel nauseous with stomach pain, and in extreme cases vomit or have diarrhea due to nervousness.
29. You continuously fear bad things will happen even though you know it’s unlikely.
30. You feel annoyed when peopled think that being shy and having anxiety are the same thing.
31. In a relationship you may become clingy and jealous or distant and unattached.
32. Anxiety can cause you to have obsessive and compulsive behavior.
33. You fear rejection, so you distance yourself.

Fact: “Did you know that the symptoms you experience in your body during a panic attack, come from a primitive part of you brain? If your brain thinks you’re in danger, it will react for you, trying to keep you safe. This in turn makes you more anxious” (High Anxieties).

Want to understand anxiety better and learn what to do about it? Feel free to read: The Ultimate Anxiety Survival Guide: Breakdown

Anxiety disorders are a lot more common thank you think. According to ADAA 40 million adults in the United States alone struggle with anxiety disorders. I am confident that little by little society is starting to understand anxiety better. Through charities and various movements, slowly but surely stigmatization is breaking. My dream is to live in a world where those with anxiety and any other mental disorder can get the help they need without judgement. Do these situations describe you? What other predicaments have you experienced? Let me know in the comment section below.

Did you know Psych2Go has a book about Mental Health Recovery?

Check it out here: Mental Illness Recovery Book, “Something I truly enjoyed about this book is the simplicity and the variety of stories which are all focusing in one subject; mental illness. It’s amazing to see how this book connects each story to one another and to the reader. It provides a direct insight of living with mental illness and tips on how to overcome some disorders. If you feel lost, or if you want to help a friend or family member then this is the book for you.” -Carelyn