It’s Not You. It’s Me. I Have Anxiety.

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I have anxiety.

Not the ‘I’m a little anxious about public speaking’ type of anxiety. More along the lines of ‘How Badly Do I Really Need a Full Paycheck This Week Because I Don’t Think I Can Be Around People Today’ type of anxiety. Lately, it’s taken a turn for the worse. I struggle every morning with the decision to get out of bed and get dressed. The thought of running my oldest daughter to school and then hiding away from all human-kind (minus my youngest daughter) in the safety of my home crosses my mind every single morning without fail. My type of anxiety also comes with a period of deep depression every few months.

I’m not shy about the fact that I suffer from anxiety. I’ve written about it before. It’s a big part of my life. An every day part of my life. It’s also one of those things that gets easily dismissed or easily judged. After all, I don’t really have anything to be anxious about, right? I have my health, my girls, a beautiful home, a nice car, no money woes, a great job. On the outside looking in, I have literally nothing to be anxious or sad about. I should be able to count my blessings, pray it away, pull myself up, and move on.

But that’s the funny thing about anxiety – it has no reasoning. It’s a tiny voice in my head constantly telling me that I’m not good enough; constantly telling me that I should be embarrassed by my entire existence. This voice tells me that no one should love me. It reminds me of how easily replaceable I am in my job. It makes jabs at my appearance and intellect. It screams at me that I’m a terrible mother and that my girls deserve better. This is the voice that reminds me that I’m a bad friend. A bad everything to everyone. It tells me that I’m too much of everything and too little of everything all at once. This little voice tells me about all the ugly in the world – the suffering and sadness – and amplifies it until I literally feel sick worrying about people who have no idea I exist. 

This is just me and how my brain works. I have ways of coping that I’ve perfected over the years, but it still sometimes gets the best of me. I try not to use my anxiety as an excuse. I don’t want pity. But I do want those who interact with me on a daily basis to have an understanding that it’s not them – it’s me.

If I don’t want to talk or respond to messages or go out or put on real clothes or do any of the things that I normally love to do, it’s because I’m struggling at the moment. I’m probably beating myself up over something that I did that no one else has any recollection of. I might be worried over something that someone else might consider silly. My anxiety is a knot in my stomach at all times. It’s not eating. It’s sleeping a lot. It’s feeling wired and tired all at once. It’s having no drive and wanting to do everything at the same time. It’s me in a perpetual state of breath holding, just waiting for everything to fall apart. It’s a daily walk of a rope bridge with missing boards while I try to scramble my way to the other side without falling and pulling anyone else down with me.  

The moment will pass eventually – maybe in a few hours or a few days or a few weeks; but until then, it’s going to feel like the longest moment in the whole world for everyone involved, and for that, I am so incredibly sorry.

I’m trying hard, but I have anxiety.

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Samantha
Samantha is a native of small-town Southern Indiana who loves exploring the Circle City with her husband and their daughters, Kate (October 2011) and Isla (December 2015). After finishing a degree in Professional Writing at Purdue, Sam made her way to the greater Indianapolis area where she learned to embrace the lack of hills and abundance of interstate. After an 8-year career in business development and marketing, she’s taken a step back from the corporate world to focus on her own business – GrayGirl Designs – where she designs invitations, stationary, and business materials and offers marketing services, graphic design, and résumé writing. When she’s not trying to balance family and her business, she enjoys (in no particular order): Jazzercize, yoga, crafting, horseback riding, way too much coffee, and hiking. Sam is also a melanoma survivor and a passionate advocate of skin cancer and sun safety education and awareness.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Love this post Sam! I’ve been going through a rough patch with my anxiety, too. Moving last month really through me into a tailspin; my OCD spiked, anxiety through the roof and all of a sudden I’m screaming at my husband every day, can’t sleep and have morphed into crazy woman. I’m trying to reign in the beast by seeing my doctor next week to discuss getting back on my medication and working out every day in the meantime for “natural” treatment. It’s rough. I totally relate with all of this. Hang in there! This too shall pass and we’ll be back to ourselves soon enough! xoxo

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