Yet another day has come. Everything should be ok. On the surface, nothing is really wrong. Underneath, at your very core, everything feels wrong. Off. You can’t place your finger on it, but something is not right.
There it is. It’s your anxiety rearing it’s ugly head again.
As your heart begins to race and your thoughts spiral out of control, one thought resonates in your mind. Repeating itself incessantly. “Am I broken?”
What is wrong with me.
Why can’t I just be normal. Everyone else seems to have it all together. I feel like a disaster.
As your mind convinces you that surely there is something wrong with you, it feeds into the anxiousness. And before you know it, your spiraling again. Unable to control your thoughts, your emotions. Not being able to stop your heart from feeling as if it’s going to beat right out of your chest. You can’t breathe, it feels as if the world is crashing down on you.
In this moment, you feel lost. But, we are here to tell you, that you aren’t broken. You’re just human.
Calm On The Surface, Rough Underneath The Waves
The truth is, anxiety is extremely common. In the past decade, there has been a rise in generalized anxiety disorders. Actually, there has been such a dramatic increase that it is now the most common of mental health disorders.
Long ago, our ancestors bodies developed a way to deal with high moments of stress. It was a life saving technique – fight, or flight. In the wild, in a split second, they needed to make a choice. Either flee from danger or fight through it. It was quite useful, actually. When facing the decision of attacking or to be attacked. Now? Not so much.
We are living in modern times, where thankfully, we don’t often face situations where we have to fight or flee. And, yet, our bodies and minds have held on to this defense mechanism.
When our mind perceives something as a threat, our anxiety spikes. So when we begin to feel nervous about something, our brain automatically assumes something is wrong. So it prepares us for the fight or flight response – even when it is not needed.
Less than helpful, right?
Anxiety Does Not Mean You Are Weak Or Broken
At the end of the day, we are all just humans. Trying our best to get through life the best way we know how to. We all feel stress. Everyone will feel days when their best just doesn’t seem as if it is enough. For some people, the anxiety they deal with goes away after the stress does. And, still, many more of us deal with anxiety as if it is a constant companion.
Anxiety does not mean you are broken.
It does not mean you are weak.
Anxiety is our bodies way of alerting us that something is wrong. And sometimes, it just doesn’t make sense. But, it doesn’t have to be always be like this.
You Can Take Back The Control
Anxiety has a way of controlling our lives. Dictating how it tells us how we are going to feel that day. If we are going to leave the house. Convincing us that the situation we are worried about is going to be much worse than it will likely turn out. Keeping us stuck in this cycle of frustration and never ending despair.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
You don’t have to let anxiety control your life. Let’s put it another way. You can control your anxiety. While we may not be able to control what we get anxious over, we can change our response to it. Anxiety is now the reaction to negative thoughts and unhelpful views you have learned as coping mechanisms.
You are not broken. You are a human doing the best you can. And that is all the power you need to remember when fighting the flight or flee response. If you are ready to begin a new journey of self-discovery and loving yourself, we are here to support you when you reach out.
