anxiety

A look at anxiety in its many forms and manifestations; what is the nature of this specific pattern of extreme fear and worry?

It's All in Your Head?
Sometimes people's symptoms related to mental illness are dismissed as being "all in your head." This is perhaps most common when it comes to physical symptoms of anxiety. We hear it from loved ones, but also from health professionals.
By Ashley L. Peterson7 years ago in Psyche
Dating Anxiety
It’s half an hour before the date. Nothing you wear looks right and your hair is a total mess. But it’s too late to cancel now, isn’t it? With trembling hands you reapply your makeup for the third time, hoping this time it will be right. As you start to walk, you feel sick, your heart is thumping, and your palms feel sweaty—you recognise this feeling well. It’s your anxiety.
By Emily Glancy7 years ago in Psyche
Inside the Hidden Circus of Your Mind
Having an anxiety disorder, particularly a high-functioning anxiety disorder, is like having a conjoined twin. A very loud, disruptive, pessimistic conjoined twin. It is with you when you try to go to bed at a decent time, it is then with you two hours later when it wakes you up multiple times by shouting frightening things at you, and it is still with you in the morning, to which it gleefully follows you, taunting and prodding at you as you try to survive through your day.
By Rose Walker7 years ago in Psyche
Teacher Anxiety
I feel this topic is becoming more and more prevalent in the upcoming days. I feel that people are starting to truly come out of their shells and say, "Hey! I have anxiety too." It's not an easy thing to say nor an easy thing to admit. It's hard because very few people understand what anxiety is truly like. Until you have anxiety, you really have no idea.
By Hutch7 years ago in Psyche
Anxiety Speech
All over the world, people suffer from anxiety, but what actually is anxiety? There are people who do not exactly understand or know what it is like to have an actual anxiety disorder. Frankly, a lot of people accidentally confuse anxiety with panic attacks or even just nerves. When it comes to tests a lot of the time people will say that they are having test anxiety. Anxiety isn’t that simple.
By Natalie C..7 years ago in Psyche
Living Life with Chronic Anxiety
Living life with chronic anxiety feels like an uphill battle that you will never win. It feels so out of your control and like you will never win. Even when everything seems to be going as planned, your brain finds more to worry about and hones in on it. It is life filled with coping mechanisms, both good and poor, and pretending that life is good when in reality it feels like a water balloon with a leak that is slowly losing all of its contents. Anxiety comes in the form of needing to control people and things, setting high standards for yourself and becoming your worst critic, being scared to go out with people, being scared to go anywhere for that matter, having even the best things ruined by the little voice in your head, and constantly worrying.
By Makayla Richards7 years ago in Psyche
Easing My Anxiety
The messy blur called my life has brought me anything but peace in between the trials and tribulations of navigating a mental illness that is so widely spread but one that few truly understand.
By Jen Ai7 years ago in Psyche
Stress: Where Does It Come From?
Stress is a term coined by Hans Selye who was a prominent feature in the book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, which I read in the last couple years of living by myself. Physical stress makes people look ill. Selye is one I need to read more of since he pioneered the field of stress management. I was under so much stress in high school anyway, with no idea how to manage it. Stress can make one over eat while being overwhelmed with their anxious feelings. There are three stages of stress, such as stage one, an alarm reaction that leads to fight or flight, taking energy from the immune system, causing illness.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez7 years ago in Psyche
Bullying
I’m beyond terrified to share this. I’ve gone back and forth on it for a long time, but then I was thinking, “What if someone else shared their story when I needed it?”
By Cassy :)7 years ago in Psyche
Anxiety
I've published one article so far about the car accident that left me with brain damage and memory/depression issues. But I didn't really touch much on the anxiety of it all. Before the accident, I had some minor social anxieties, mostly to do with crowds. I hated being in crowds, because I always felt like I was going to be crushed. Irrational, I know, but that's anxiety, to me. I would almost always start to get a little panicky. I stopped going places that I knew would be especially crowded, preferring to stay safe at home.
By Jessye Gould7 years ago in Psyche
Coping with Social Anxiety
Walls closing in, that feeling of terror when multiple people you do not know come up to you forcing unwanted compliments down your throat and the terrifying feeling that even church is not safe—making enduring social anxiety a nightmare.
By Sarah Jones7 years ago in Psyche
Having Your Shit Together IS Exhausting
I’ve had my shit together since I was a kid. I fully believed that to live the best life, your poop had to be in a group, and probably definitely color coded. So I filled my life up with ways of being better—with the ultimate goal of being the best if it was at all possible. I had good grades. I got accepted into a competitive program in college. Applied and received increasingly better-paying jobs. I had never been unemployed for longer than the weekend between me leaving one company for another. You name it.
By Stefania Brandner7 years ago in Psyche