Welcome to Anxiety Attacker, a one stop shop for dealing with the side effects of living. Anxiety is something that many people suffer from, from panic and stress to a debilitating disorder that can be hard to beat on its own. Thankfully, none of those people are alone! This series will offer  many different techniques that’ll turn anyone into a regular anxiety attacker.
First, let’s discuss what anxiety actually is. Anxiety is a word that’s thrown around daily and can refer to a diagnosable and pretty debilitating disorder to a common human state of mind that’s just not very comfortable to be in.
Strictly speaking, “anxiety” is roughly defined as a feeling of worry or unease regarding an imminent event in someone’s life. Anxiety itself is just a temporary feeling, and a pretty healthy one at that.
An anxiety disorder, however, involves a heightened state of anxiety that does not go away. In order to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, someone has to have felt ongoing feelings of anxiety for at least six months. That isn’t just six months of an uneasy stomach and sweaty palms, either. That’s six months of all encompassing, racing thoughts that cause those with it to question pretty much everything they do and everything they say on a daily basis.
As these are only a handful of symptoms that have a very high chance of getting worse over time, it’s easy to say that having an anxiety disorder sucks. Having to manage one’s anxiety every single day and still juggle everyday responsibilities on top of that doesn’t exactly seem as fun as a barrel of monkeys. Or it would, if the monkeys were throwing the barrels at people. And the barrels were on fire.
So what is there to do when trapped in a burning room with deranged, screaming monkeys? Fortunately, a lot of things. Throughout this series, we’ll discover and discuss simple, easy coping methods that can apply to everyone, but are especially good at nipping anxiety in the bud. Of course, nothing stated here will be a permanent fix by any means, but for those who suffer from anxiety in any form, it’ll hopefully make the day to day management a little easier.
Now that this introduction is coming to a close, some readers might be thinking “Camille, we didn’t actually learn any coping skills in this article! What kind of nonsense are you trying to pull?!” The answer, dear reader, is a lot of nonsense! However, the very first coping skill any can use when confronted with anything, especially anxiety, is to be informed. Identifying what one is struggling with and taking the appropriate steps to learn more about it and get help is by far one of the healthiest places to begin.
Of course, reading one article written by an anxious, seventeen year old girl isn’t enough, but can be a great starting point. If you think you have a disorder such as generalized anxiety, however, don’t be afraid to talk to someone and seek help. The more that you learn about yourself and what you’re facing, the better equipped you will be to deal with it, so make sure to stay informed.