“I’m so stressed out right now.” I’m sure you hear this often and you may say it too. Everyone can get nervous or frightened from time to time. Some people fear public speaking or close encounters with unknown people. Others tend to burden their mind with endless irrational, confusing thoughts.
Whether it’s worrying that we won’t fulfill our responsibilities on time or waiting for a critical meeting at work to take place, a little bit of nervousness or anxiety can help us get more motivated and productive. But, for those who suffer from anxiety, this is certainly not the case.
Unless you suffer from this awful condition, it’ll be very difficult for you to understand the things that those who have this disorder go through every day.
To them, anxiety is not a feeling of stress and fear – it’s so much more than that. It’s overwhelming, frustrating, and debilitating.
Anxiety makes them overanalyze everything and fight with their own conscience. It makes them feel afraid to make their own decisions and doubt their abilities and choices. They feel like they’re stuck in a black hole from which there’s no way out.
If you want to know what it’s like inside the mind of an anxious person, take a look at the following 40 things only people with anxiety experience that others will never understand.
1. Your mind is always racing with thoughts and you feel like there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
2. You perceive the world differently from other people. You have a difficulty differentiating between a neutral, safe situation and one that was previously associated with a threat.
3. You doubt everything and everyone, including yourself and your abilities.
4. You often dwell on your faults and weaknesses far beyond what is healthy and normal.
5. No matter how hard you try to live a normal life, you always feel like there’s something missing. Living a normal life with your racing mind is almost impossible.
6. You often feel emotionally, mentally, and physically drained.
7. You often compare yourself with other people and you downplay your achievements and successes.
8. When you see a group of people laughing, you think they might be laughing at you.
9. When someone gives you compliments, you don’t know how to react and you think that they’re just being nice.
10. If someone doesn’t accept your Facebook friend request, according to you, this means they hate you.
11. It’s very difficult, almost impossible, for you to be spontaneous.
12. You have a fear of public speaking.
13. You take your mistakes very seriously.
14. It’s hard for you to get into and maintain your romantic relationships because you tend to doubt your partner and yourself. You tend to think that they’re hiding something from you and that they aren’t honestly in love with you.
15. You tend to overanalyze every single bit of your conversations. You worry whether you said something you shouldn’t have.
16. Making decisions is difficult and pretty exhausting for you, and even when you make one, you keep asking yourself if that was the right decision.
17. You often try to keep yourself busy during the day so as to suppress your anxious thoughts and be in more control over your emotions and actions.
18. Whatever you’re doing, you have the habit of obsessing over the smallest details.
19. You often blame yourself if things don’t go as you planned.
20. You do a lot of negative self-talk. You tend to dwell on your past mistakes and failures, and blame yourself for them.
21. You worry about what other people think of you.
22. And you take their opinions to heart.
23. You’re empathetic toward people who have hidden problems.
24. You easily get annoyed and stressed out because even the smallest and least serious problems can irritate you.
25. You avoid watching certain shows on TV because you often relate to them.
26. You often struggle to fall asleep, and even when you do so, you constantly wake up during the night, because you’re tired a lot and your mind is always racing.
27. You worry that you might let your loved ones down.
28. You also worry that you might be a burden on them.
29. Meeting new people is definitely not fun for you.
30. The idea of flirting or going on a date with your crush terrifies you.
31. When your boss calls you at their office, the first thought that comes to your mind is that they’re going to fire you.
32. You can be paranoid sometimes. When someone is walking behind you, you feel like they’re following you.
33. You avoid going to events which involve a lot of people as this makes you feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed, and it triggers your anxiety.
34. You don’t like leaving your comfort zone. Instead, you stick to routines and experiences you’re familiar with.
35. You have difficulties socializing with other people. You’re afraid you might say something that will make you look stupid and weird.
36. You often feel like the whole world is against you.
37. You feel like you’re different from the rest, which is why you often feel lonely and isolated from others.
38. Sometimes you misunderstand people who have the best of their intentions.
39. You have a hard time focusing on the present.
40. The thing you wish for the most in the whole world is to somehow stop worrying and having these never-ending confusing, unreasonable, and often negative thoughts, but you can’t.
