Small struggles people with anxiety face every single day

When you struggle with anxiety, be it the small, vague nagging kind or the overwhelming, utterly crippling kind, day-to-day life is a little different. Things that might be no big deal to most people, might be a big, huge, day-altering deal to you. Tasks that most people might breeze through without a second thought, might take lots and lots of mental and, even emotional, prep for you to even begin. And everyday occurrences that might be mildly awkward for most people might leave you absolutely reeling.

That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with you, as a human, for suffering from anxiety, no matter how severe. But there’s a difference between it not meaning there’s anything wrong with you and it causing an irritating amount of wrong in your life. And the effects don’t have to be obvious and severe to impact your day in real, significant ways. Below are some of the small, sometimes invisible, moments that people with anxiety dread on a daily basis.

The gap of time between sending your boss an email and hearing back from your boss.

It’s excruciating and you spend the whole time convincing yourself that they hate you and you’re probably about to be fired.

The struggle of whether or not to cancel plans. 

Is the anxiety of going out actually worse than the anxiety of texting to say that you can’t go out?

Being asked any variation of, “How’s it going?”

The true answer is, “Kind of terrible, but I can’t identify why. I just have a constant feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach and, intellectually, I know there’s no reason to feel this way, but I STILL FEEL THIS WAY and it’s freaking me out a little and I’m starting to internally spiral.” But the answer you give is, “Pretty good.”

When your friends realize you’re not doing “pretty good” and keep asking “what’s wrong?”

The intentions are so good, and the efforts are so appreciated, but when you’re anxious, you don’t always have a concrete answer to “what’s wrong,” even though yes, something is wrong and yes, you know it’s obvious. You’re not trying to lie to anyone or drum up more sympathy; sometimes you just really don’t know. 

When a kind stranger holds the door open for you.

And you’re not really *that* close, but you don’t want to full-on run, so you awkward speed-walk and mutter a string of “thank you… I’m sorry… thank you again, but sorry I was so slow.”

Hanging up a phone call and starting a real-life conversation and then being paranoid that you didn’t actually hang up the phone.

Because in this irrational fear fantasy, someone else is hearing your every awkward word. And judging you. Hard.

When you leave your desk for a little bit and come back to a full inbox. 

Emails might seem harmless, but what’s really sitting in that inbox are dozens of little stress monsters, looking to destroy your anxious mind.

Any time you need to make a phone call. For any reason. Ever.

Phone calls are actually the worst.

(Image via Pixar, , here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)