Dear Anxiety: A Letter From an "Anxiety Survivor"

The following letter was written addressing anxiety from a strong and resilient individual. This letter will help you see what living life with anxiety may look like and what they would say to anxiety. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Dear Anxiety,

Why do you come around, but never really leave? Who are you? And why do you make me feel what I feel? I try to run and hide behind my medications, but you always still seem to find me. I’ve lost touch with reality, and I feel so far away.

I want to run and laugh and be myself. But what was once a colored world has now turned grey. What was filled with hope and aspiration, is now pain and fear. When you’re around I’m afraid of you, I’m afraid of the world, I’m afraid of life.

You move in silence as you strike me with impending doom. I am now in fight or flight mode.This same feeling others get when in danger, you make me feel for no reason. I don’t decide when you come and yet you choose to come at the worst times. I can be alone or I can be with friends, it doesn’t matter. You sweep me up like a black hole and everything around me turns to dust.

I’m scared of you, but I will learn to fight you. You’re a shadow that never fades, but that’s okay. The beauty of anxiety is acceptance. And with acceptance comes strength. And with this strength, you can smile and still tell yourself that life is still beautiful, even with an ugly shadow. Because the sweet ain't as sweet without the sour. Light isnt light without darkness. And happiness isn't appreciated without a little bit of you.

From,

An anxiety survivor

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