What is Anxiety?
[Music] there is no way I’m going to pass this exam I don’t even want to show up I was so uncomfortable at that party it was hard for me to breathe and I got all sweaty I had to leave I won’t go to sleep or leave the house unless I’ve made sure the stove is off and the doors are locked sometimes I do this three or four times I have to get to the airport five hours early you just never know what might happen [Music] these are the voices of people who have experienced anxiety anxiety is a common reaction to life events like taking a final exam we’re speaking in front of a crowd but when it becomes really uncomfortable and makes day-to-day life hard to live then it’s a problem or even what we call a disorder I know I’ve lived with anxiety for a long time my own anxiety feels like it’s about everything I worry about so many things in so many ways and it impacts my life big-time I stress about things that are about to happen or might happen and it means I can’t really focus on where I am or who I’m with sometimes my heart pounds I speak really fast and I kind of snap at people my family gets really frustrated when it’s really bad I have a knot in my stomach all the time I can even feel depressed and then I just want to be alone I feel like if I do something I’ll screw it up or something will go wrong so a lot of times I just rather avoid it all I feel so much better staying home and maybe having a drink turns out anxiety is a very common mental health symptoms it can be the main sign of generalized anxiety disorder which I have or social anxiety disorder which is when people have a fear of being in public or meeting new people for those of us with social or generalized anxiety disorders it’s really difficult to live the way we want to live some people have anxiety about really specific things they are afraid of heights snakes spiders or something else these are called phobias and when people avoid these things anxiety mostly stays away but when people can’t avoid their phobias it is a real problem
some people experience anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder which can make people really overcome with anxiety in these conditions anxiety can be so intense that people are at risk for suicide and they use alcohol or drugs to cope and sometimes their lives feel like they come to a halt I’m one of the lucky ones my doctor told me how to get the treatment that would help me and it did I understand now what my anxiety feels like when it happens and what I can do about it I learned some great coping skills and even just naming it keeps it in perspective sometimes my anxiety can still get pretty big but it doesn’t seem to last quite as long as it used to my anxiety was treatable for most people this is true you can get your life back to where you want it to be I know I’ve got mine back [Music]
