My dear daughter has walked this anxiety journey and has some wonderful words of wisdom to share today! Thank you for your heartfelt and honest reflections. I love you! I am with you every step!

 

“My experience with anxiety started out when I hit high school. It was a major change in my life, and it was hard being in a new environment. Every morning I’d wake up feeling sick, and I didn’t understand that this pit in my stomach was anxiety. I didn’t know how to handle it, and this resulted in me calling up my mom to pick me up, or I’d skip class because there were so many fears bottling up inside of me. I lived in the “what if” during my time at school. While I got better at handling my fears, I still remember every time I’d wake up feeling sick, especially before a test or presentation, or just scared of the unknown. I didn’t realize my anxiety was also social anxiety too. I constantly worried about what others thought of me if people were judging me, and others’ opinions ultimately consumed me, so I always wanted to hide. I wouldn’t even eat lunch at school because I worried about others watching what I ate. I would always say I’m fine, or I’m just tired, or I’m not really hungry. I didn’t want help, and I felt embarrassed for not being able to control my emotions. My anxiety prevented me from a lot, and now, being in university with a little more growth and maturity, I wish I could go back and tell my high school self some of the major things that changed the way I thought.

 

Whenever I felt overwhelmed or had an anxiety attack, I called on people who made me feel safe. Having people in your life that will listen, give you advice or just make you not feel alone can really help, especially when you are anxious.

 

Another thing was going to a counsellor or a therapist. I found that being able to talk about my problems, have someone validate how I felt, give me advice and breathing techniques and help me work through my struggles was really helpful. It’s always okay to ask for help.

 

Finding things that work for you is important, and sometimes you must experiment with different coping mechanisms to find what works for you. This is what personally helped me get through things and hopefully if you can take anything away from this, it’s that always reach out and ask for help or support. Anxiety is something I still deal with, but I’m getting better at coping with it.”