Intro
Millions of people worldwide suffer from anxiety. From time to time getting anxious is normal. It’s often a response to certain events that happen in our lives. Usually, those anxious thoughts are nothing to worry about and pass with time. But when those anxious thoughts just won’t budge and they start affecting your day-to-day life, it may be time for some help. Sometimes, people who are suffering from anxiety have no idea what’s going on, and that can make it harder to reach out for help. In this blog post, we’re going to talk about anxiety symptoms, to help you understand if you’re struggling with anxiety.
Before we continue, I just want to add that I’m not a medical professional. Everything spoken about in this blog post is all from my own personal experience with anxiety. The anxiety symptoms spoken about; are all symptoms I’ve suffered from. I’ll talk about my experience with these anxiety symptoms. I also share some of my thoughts and feelings associated with those symptoms. I hope from writing this you can begin to understand if you’re suffering from anxiety too. Always remember you’re not alone. If I can reach out for help, you can too!
My experience with anxiety
I think I’ve always had anxiety. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had thoughts and feelings of anxiety. But when I was younger, the number of sports and activities I did suppressed those thoughts and feelings. Or at least enabled me to manage them without really knowing what was going on. This all changed when I became a teenager. As I got more involved in drink and drugs, my anxiety went through the roof. It made day-to-day life extremely difficult. How did I cope with this? I decided to self-medicate by using drink and drugs in the hope those feelings would go away. How wrong was I! It only made my anxiety a lot worse. Self-medicating is never the answer. To understand more about substance abuse, check out this blog post.
While I can now look back and say that I was suffering from anxiety, I had no idea what was going on at the time! I had all these horrible thoughts rushing around my head and I thought I was the only person to feel that way. I was scared to speak to other people, as I feared they would think I was crazy. So, I just bottled everything up. I let the situation get way worse before it could get better, and I don’t want anybody else to have to do that. I think I would have always experimented with drink and drugs as that’s the sort of person I was. However, if I’d understood that I was suffering from anxiety earlier, I would never have self-medicated in the hope that my problems would just disappear.
3 anxiety symptoms
1. Constant fear of being judged by others for your actions
I could have had the best day ever and received the best news possible, but my head would tell me differently. It didn’t matter what I did, I was constantly worried my actions were going to be judged negatively by those around me – my family and friends. I would get intense thoughts of fear that the people closest to me thought I was just one big joke, and they were only in my life to see how well I could fuck it up. I would overthink and analyse everything I’d said or done in a day. It got to the point where all I wanted to do was escape reality and I did this by using substances. This only made my situation worse. When I was coming down, all the thoughts and feelings came flooding back, with added shame and disappointment from the actions I took.
2. You start avoiding social situations you used to love
I’m a very social person and I love spending time with my friends. We’d often just hang out, go to pubs, or find new spots to eat food. However, when my anxiety got worse, the situations that I loved being in, turned into overwhelming, daunting tasks that I started to avoid. Thoughts would rush around my head about how I would embarrass myself in front of my mates. Or be judged for doing something silly, or for saying the wrong things. I started coming up with excuse after excuse to avoid these situations. One week I wouldn’t be well, then the next week a family emergency would have happened. And if my friends managed to talk me into coming out, I would get so drunk to ‘cope’ with my feelings, that I’d end up embarrassing myself anyway.
3. You always expect the worst to happen, even in good situations
I’m usually a confident person, who works hard and is good at dealing with people. I’m very proud of my work. I always do it to the best of my ability and have received good feedback from customers and colleagues. But when my anxiety was at its worst, it didn’t matter if I’d done the best job in the world and received positive feedback. My head would still find a way to think and expect the worst about a situation. I would think things like ‘Why are they saying this to me’, ‘Is it a trick’, or ‘Are they just getting ready to fire me’. It didn’t matter how much validation I had that a situation went well; my head would always fear the worst possible outcome. Then, I’d make mistakes, and holy shit, it would feel like the world was about to end! As the thoughts and feelings were so intense, rather than meeting my mistakes head-on, I’d bury my head in the sand. I’d get wasted in the hope those thoughts and feelings would go away. They didn’t. I then had to deal with it with a horrible hangover.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in the intro, these are the main 3 anxiety symptoms I was suffering from. I’ve spoken about my personal experience with these 3 symptoms. I hope after reading this you’ve realised 2 things:
- If you’re struggling with anxiety, you’re not alone. You can get through this. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
- Self-medicating with drink and drugs is never the solution, it only makes it worse!
Also, if you think you’re struggling with anxiety, please reach out to your doctor! There is no shame in seeking professional help. But if you don’t want to take that step just yet, I’ve got 2 more suggestions you should try now:
- Get out a notebook (or notes on your phone) and write down how you’re feeling. Don’t think, just write! Getting your thoughts out of your head is a great way to ease your anxiety. It can also make it easier to take the next step.
- Speak to a family member like your parents or a sibling. You don’t need to suffer alone. Telling someone how you feel is a huge step on the recovery journey. Also, having someone in your corner will make this journey a lot easier.
To understand more about anxiety’s signs and symptoms, check out this blog here.
Remember, you’ve got this. The only way is up!