Anxiety Revisited
Newsflash: Your mind is trigger-happy
Anxiety
I remember vividly lying in my bed, crying. I was about ten years old, and I suffered from what I now understand to be an anxiety attack. I thought I was going to die. The only good news was, I did not want to.
I heard my father come up the stairs. He had listened to my cries grow louder and louder. When he finally came to my room, I told him. As any parent would do, he held me in his strong arms and consoled me. He told me not to worry; I would have a long life ahead of me. Later that evening and reassured, I fell into a restless sleep.
The Trigger
Only a few weeks before, I lost my cousin in a storm. It was a genuine freak accident. On his bike, he was blown onto the road by a strong and sudden wind gust. Unfortunately, he was hit by a car and died in hospital after spending some time in a deep coma. I don’t know if he suffered or for how long he was in the hospital. It felt like an eternity. He was only 13.
I vividly remember the devastation in the family. My mother was a wreck, my father, the rock and I, well I sucked it up and tried to move on. My father did not cry, and neither did I. I expelled my emotions, refused to acknowledge and talk about his death. With the pain pushed aside, I stumbled on…
