Anxiety - Breaking Taboo
I write. Professionally I write blog posts, and product descriptions, and website content. I get paid for it. But I struggle to create original content for my own blog. Sometimes, it's a time management thing, sometimes it's that I'm expelling my creativity in other avenues. But most of the time it's anxiety. Not over anything in particular, just general-creativity crushing- motivation zapping anxiety.
And people don't generally talk about mental illness. But when you suffer from it, and those around you suffer because of your illness, and your work suffers from your illness, it's hard to keep quiet.
Sometimes, you begin to feel like Anxiety is what defines you. The way that people say someone IS diabetic, rather than they have diabetes.
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Other times, you feel like you're forgotten in a world that just keeps churning one without you. Like you can't get a grip on anything around you. You're floating away, sinking out of sight, and no one seems concerned.
But for too long our society has put a taboo on the concept of Anxiety and Mental illness as a person who is "crazy" or "less than" those without anxiety.
It's time to take back ourselves and put anxiety in its place. Anxiety is an affliction, it is not a personality identifier. It is a scary thing to deal with on our own, but the last thing someone suffering through a period of anxiety needs if for those who love them to push on them "advice" about doing something that makes you happy or finding a reason to move on. Or Smiling more because it'll help it pass. These don't help, and sometimes they even compound the feelings of "being less".
The best way to help someone you love who is suffering from anxiety is to ask them what they need. Sometimes they won't be able to identify it, but just knowing you're there to help is helping.
I'm personally a fan of visiting nature, like a quiet walk, alone. Or a trip to the beach to listen to the ocean. I like to meditate to the sound of the waves washing over the short.
Others need a quiet space, to deprive their senses and spend some time in their own head, detangling the mess of thoughts.
I'm a fan of wrapping up in a blanket (when I can't get to nature) and listening to a recording of the rain. Or reading a book that makes me happy. Regardless of what I choose to do to help my anxiety, sometimes I just can't cope and function in the "real world" until the anxiety attack passes. Sometimes it's not as simple as taking some time. Sometimes I'm out of commission for a couple of days. But with the support of my friends and family, I'm surviving, even if I'm not yet thriving.
(Note: images were pulled at random off google image search. If they belong to you and you'd like credit, please email me at echo.mayernik@gmail.com | I do not own these images.)
And people don't generally talk about mental illness. But when you suffer from it, and those around you suffer because of your illness, and your work suffers from your illness, it's hard to keep quiet.
Sometimes, you begin to feel like Anxiety is what defines you. The way that people say someone IS diabetic, rather than they have diabetes.
Other times, you feel like you're forgotten in a world that just keeps churning one without you. Like you can't get a grip on anything around you. You're floating away, sinking out of sight, and no one seems concerned.
But for too long our society has put a taboo on the concept of Anxiety and Mental illness as a person who is "crazy" or "less than" those without anxiety.
It's time to take back ourselves and put anxiety in its place. Anxiety is an affliction, it is not a personality identifier. It is a scary thing to deal with on our own, but the last thing someone suffering through a period of anxiety needs if for those who love them to push on them "advice" about doing something that makes you happy or finding a reason to move on. Or Smiling more because it'll help it pass. These don't help, and sometimes they even compound the feelings of "being less".
The best way to help someone you love who is suffering from anxiety is to ask them what they need. Sometimes they won't be able to identify it, but just knowing you're there to help is helping.
I'm personally a fan of visiting nature, like a quiet walk, alone. Or a trip to the beach to listen to the ocean. I like to meditate to the sound of the waves washing over the short.
Others need a quiet space, to deprive their senses and spend some time in their own head, detangling the mess of thoughts.
(Note: images were pulled at random off google image search. If they belong to you and you'd like credit, please email me at echo.mayernik@gmail.com | I do not own these images.)
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