Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States. It affects 40 million US citizens ages 18+. That's not even including the citizens under the age of 18.
I've lived with anxiety for a while now. But I only knew that's what I was dealing with for the past few years. For the most part it's social anxiety. However, the rest of it is just general anxiety. Dealing with anxiety means learning how to deal with it; figuring out what triggers it, what makes it worse, and how to best avoid that.
I've learned that the best way to deal with my anxiety is predictability. My body doesn't do well with last minute plans. The best way for me to manage anxiety is by having a plan, a schedule, or at least some idea of a plan. I always try to have a time for everything. I use alarms like a mad woman lol. For me, it's best to have at least a day or two notice, but a few hours works too. I think anything under an hour starts to mess with my head.
If someone texts me and says, "I'm going here in a couple minutes, wanna come with?" The answer will be no. If someone were to text me and say, "I'm coming over." The response will probably be, "I'm not home," even if I am. One of my biggest pet peeves is people saying, "Let's go here this weekend." My excuse is usually that I have a job and I need time to ask off which isn't false. But it's also because I didn't plan to go somewhere that weekend and planning a trip that sudden doesn't agree with my brain. I immediately start to stress out and get anxious because I'm afraid I'm going to miss something or forget something. Because the fact is, I didn't plan to go out or plan to have anyone over. My biggest trigger is running into people I know in public. Going into a store I am anxious because I'm scared I'm going to run into someone I know. Unfortunately that's not one that I can help or plan for.
Anxiety is all about learning how your body responds to things and figuring out how to manage it. Figure out what triggers you, even if it's in the smallest way, and find the best way to handle it. Or for situations that can't be planned for, like me going into a store, figure out how to ground yourself during those situations. Anxiety is one of the leading mental illnesses in the United States and is one that more people should be educated on.
For more information:
Comments