An Open Letter To People Struggling With Anxiety Right Now

If things have been feeling off for you lately, you're not alone.

I've struggled with really bad anxiety and panic attacks for quite some time now. As time goes on, things get better. But sometimes tough patches happen despite your effort to grow and make "friends" with your worries.

Today, I'm really tired and feel like being a bit selfish with my content because that's what I need haha. So right now, I want to talk to the overwhelmed person in their head who's probably on the verge of crisis mode.

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A Letter to Those Who Struggle With Anxiety

I'm not a doctor, so I am not going to give coping recommendations. Things that can help are specifically individual and vary per person.

But I will say, dealing with anxiety feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you're never going to experience relief. That's how I feel now and it's incredibly exhausting. Maybe it's just me, but my anxiety is rooted in fear of stagnancy and feeling like I don't have solutions to fix it.

I physically feel anxiety in my chest, throat and hands (weirdly.) I begin to stutter in my speech, my jaw feels like it's quivering and I'm about to cry, and I move my hands a lot and rub/pat my chest to work out the nerves. (a trick I developed in theater haha)

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It's OK to sleep and take a break. Not every human being is mean. You're not a loser if you don't know what to do. No one's going to condemn you if you forget to get vegetables at the grocery store.

That judge and jury in your head are NOT real!

My best friend and I have a sentence we say to each other when we get caught up in our mental storm.

Take it day by day.

That's really all you can do when control is slipping from your fingers. But you're not alone in that experience. We're all going through life not knowing what the hell we're doing. You're going to be OK.