Don't ask me why I'm anxious.
I’ve got a million reasons, and zero. I know the question is well-meaning, but for someone with anxiety problems that are awaiting intervention (appointment scheduled Friday), asking why I’m anxious invites me to catalogue everything that could possibly go wrong. It encourages my brain to make a normal day a terrifying one in which I’m anxious that people will stop loving me, that I’ll get hurt, that someone I love will get hurt, that everything will be my fault.
Asking me why I’m anxious has another insidious effect: I feel the need to justify these feelings. I have to counter “what do you have to be stressed about?” (a fairly common question in various forms) with enough to validate my feelings to others. So then it becomes can I explain how bad this is, or am I actually faking it, because my list isn’t long enough. After all, look at all the *real* terrible things that are going on in the world, and *I* can’t leave the house? And then I’m terrible for making mountains out of mole hills, and seeking attention.
It’s a pretty messed up cycle, and it sucks that when people are well-meaning can be when the questions hurt the worst. Telling me how well some things are going sometimes serves to remind me of all the things that are going to stop going well and start imploding.
Saturday was the worst of it, thus far. It took me hours to get out of the house to go for a run. I just kept crying. Finally I went, and I cried some on the road, but I felt better. For about an hour. Then the tears came back. Despite the date I had planned, I couldn’t leave the house again. Instead, we feasted on wings and pizza and garlic cheesy bread and beer over TV and movies. I still feel badly for ruining the weekend. For talking a big game and falling through.
I can take everything personally. I can see in any comment or inaction or action a personal slight, because this is a sign that people are over me. And why wouldn’t they be, when I’m like this all the time now?
Stress dreams, eye twitches, shaking. I fell asleep during my second viewing of GOTG last night and woke up to an anxiety attack, so I left. What was there to be anxious about?
This is what’s going on with me right now (and also my second attempt at writing this, thxtumblr) and the post is designed to be transparent and not attention seeking. But if you want to go on this journey with me, please don’t ask what I’m anxious about.
Ask me if it’s a good day or a bad one. Ask me where I’m at on a 1 to 10 scale of various feels. Hang out with me, check in with me, keep loving me while I struggle with this. It’s gonna be a while, I think, but it’ll be worth it. I just gotta get through it.