Top 5 Struggles that People with Anxiety have to Face Daily
They say waking up every morning is a struggle, keeping your body in shape is a struggle, having a perfect diet is a struggle; but very few try to understand where is it all stemming from.
Fortunately, people have realized that they and other people may suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety, but unfortunately, the people who have realized that are very limited.
With the ongoing pandemic, talking about mental health has significantly increased but even during the current global crisis, people are hesitant to seek help or talk openly about it.
Globally it’s estimated that close to 300 million people suffer from anxiety in their lifetime including me, making it the most prevalent disorder.
Here, I will attempt to break down what Anxiety is and the struggles one faces with this disorder from personal experience.
What is Anxiety?
It is when you feel worried, nervous, or uneasy about something and you are uncertain whether the outcome of that particular thing would be in your favor or not.
Anxiety could be inherent like diabetes, cardiac diseases, or developed due to various stressors present in our environment. Stress is one of the biggest factors that promote anxiety. It could be the stress caused by a big event, like a death in the family or it could be a build-up of small stressful events like work stress, finances, relationships, etc.
Research on personalities also concluded that Type A personality individuals are more prone to developing anxiety and other mental health disorders due to their dominant nature.
You or your loved ones could be facing some of these struggles and awareness of what these symptoms might be or how one deals with them in daily life situations, can be eye-opening.
Here are some of the problems a person with anxiety would face :
1) Discovering somebody has left a message on ‘seen’.
This is where the mind starts to question itself ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ You start going through the message repeatedly and try to comprehend why they are ignoring your messages. Whereas, in reality, they were doing the grocery or maybe hibernating. While it may not be a major symptom, it is certainly a base for a massive mental struggle.
2) Whiffs of OCD, GAD, and Paranoia freshly brewed!
Most of the time, anxiety is a small part of a bigger picture. OCD(obsessive-compulsive disorder), GAD (General Anxiety Disorder), and Paranoia are mental disorders that have anxiety as a prerequisite.
Double-checking locks, alarms, and every other thing and yet not being satisfied. Being afraid of leaving the house without checking things repeatedly for irrational fears such as returning to a burnt place. Checking the locks in the bathroom, constantly making sure that the door is closed. Reading messages a gazillion times before sending them, even if it's a simple message like “Hey, wanna hang out?”. All these are indicators that there is an underlying problem at hand.
3) Oh yes, Panic attacks…
When you belong to a family where most of its members suffer from anxiety, having a panic attack becomes pretty normal. You create scenarios in your mind that were never there.
Basically, if you are happy and you know it, overthink.
Panic attacks are common with people who have anxiety, it is an earth-shattering, soul-sucking, long periods of crying and gasping, begging to stop, whilst simultaneously portraying that you are a little miss sunshine!
4) Everyone would hate you for canceling the plan…
Sometimes you need a night off from the daily shenanigans by cutting yourself from everyone but even then you are anxious about it because you are anxious about everything. What if your friends hate you? What if they think you are not a good friend? And many more such questions…
Yes, anxiety sucks.
5) I don’t want too much attention!
Anxiety and attention are not best friends. A person dealing with anxiety disorder would hate too much attention, they would start acting awkwardly and pray deep down that someone kills them.
So, folks, these are the struggles most people from the anxiety family are familiar with and go through on daily basis. If you have a friend or family member who goes through something like this, the best way to make them comfortable is to acknowledge the existence of anxiety and trying to work with it rather than against it.