Don’t Tell Me to Calm Down.

So, I’ve never really written much of anything.

Essays, in school maybe…but nothing really like this.

I’ve just been feeling really strongly about something lately, and its something that I have seen others frustrated with as well — societies misconception about anxiety. To start off with, I feel like people sometimes confuse anxiety with being nervous. When my anxiety was really bad, most of the time I couldn’t possibly think of one thing that there was for me to be nervous about. The dizziness, the shortness of breath, the rapid heart beat, and the migraines

my god, the migraines.

I would just like to say on behalf of everyone out there who suffers from anxiety — it is nothing comparable to the butterflies you feel in your stomach when you’re nervous to do something for the first time.

Secondly, telling a person to calm down when they’re having a panic attack helps absolutely nothing..if anything it makes it worse. When you have anxiety, you already want your body to stop torturing you so bad. Hearing “calm down” or “what’re you so nervous about?!” only hurts us more. Because trust me, if we could stop this we would.

Panic attacks are out of our control.

What we need is someone to just be there. Someone to look at when our mind is nowhere to be found, and someone to just try to understand.

Anxiety is a tough battle to fight. I feel like the world has no real clue of how many people are actually suffering from anxiety, because usually the ones who have it are incredibly good at hiding it. Why? Because it seems like the world we live in today doesn’t really believe that it’s a real thing.

Well it is.

I would like to share with readers that your dark days will get brighter. I had days where I didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t want to leave my house, and couldn’t sit in a classroom for more then a half hour. Numerous doctor’s appointments trying to figure out why I was so tired and why my head hurt so bad. Frankly — it sucks. Our mind is a powerful thing, and the slightest imbalance can sometimes cause havoc on our bodies.

All in all, I wish for a world that at least thinks before it speaks. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes before you react. And always, always, be kind. You don’t know the battle the person in front of you is fighting.

xoxo