Personal Narrative: Anxiety

The weather was warm yet brisk at the same time as I walked from my grandparent’s new house to the car. As I attempted to squeeze into the backseat, it finally sunk in just how much stuff my sister thought she had to bring with her. I moronically asked her, “Why on earth would you possibly need all of this stuff?” All I got in return was a menacing glare from my sister Erin and a quick “STOP” from my mom. I thought to myself, “Just a few more hours and she’ll be gone forever, peace and quiet will finally be mine.” I could not have been more wrong.

“Drew, you know grandma loved you so, so much,” my mom tells me in the most heartbroken tone, one which I had heard only once before when my grandpa had died.

Some days it would seem like we are starting over again having to teach a child not to do things that we naturally know.  No matter what my grandma has always been kind and generous. I could never understand how my grandma has been so kind to those who would belittle her because of her Schizophrenia. While climbing, the tree my grandma was judged How can a fish, climb a tree?  Many would say they don’t. Not only has my grandma been the fish to climb the tree she has been the fish that has helped nurture and

I collapsed to the floor as my lungs shrunk two sizes and my tears couldn’t even be released due to my inability to breathe, let alone stand. This was my first real panic attack, and my body had succumbed to my mind. Backstage, just minutes before my first play, I began to think about all of the improvisation necessary for my role, and how I had to be in character continually (so as not to ruin the play for everyone else), and I couldn’t handle it. My lines had been erased from my mind, and my vision went blurry from tears and fear. Just then, two people had surrounded me, squatting to get on my level. Dizzy and ready to faint, my two best friends had helped me get a grip of reality again. They reminded

Anyone experiencing panic attacks knows all too well what it is like to experience these. The people I’ve worked with have described many of those symptoms. It is happening to all segments of our society. One lady told me she tried to hide it because she didn’t want to have people think she was crazy, she felt like she was crazy or at least going crazy. It can be debilitating. High functioning individuals can have panic attacks. One person I worked with had been experiencing panic attacks for over twenty years and yet was financially doing well. He had learned to manage and cope; he had developed some amazing survival skills. The best way he had been able to manage these episodes was to be an entrepreneur, which allowed him to call his own hours and

Just to warn you I cannot write (as you can probably tell) but these "creative rants" are just how I express myself and get my feelings out.

Growing up I had social anxiety. I was shy and scared to be around people. When i was in middle school i decided to open myself up. i met a group of people who seemed nice. I was the only asian in this group. Well one day they did the forehead trick on me. It’s the one where they tell you that if your hand is bigger than your face, you’ll have cancer. When you put your hand up to compare, they smack it into your face. Unfortunately,i did not know this trick and when I fell for it, it really hurt. Since then, they continued to smack my face every day in PE. They kept asking me, “Are you dumb? Are you dumb yet?” they also would make fun of me because i had a big forehead. I thought it was dumb for them to hit me. I didn't know why they did

Although, no matter how many times I would have to shuffle around the debris, my grandmother’s backseat became a place of great comfort among the craziness of my life. After every low grade in Social Studies, wrong note in choir, or failed relationship, I always knew that I would be able to make it when I saw the small black car in the parking lot. As soon as I sat down in my seat, no one would be able to judge me or tell me what to do. I could also vent my frustration to my grandmother, who would in return tell me that I’m over-reacting about

When I was in middle school and suffering from extreme social anxiety, I met a girl. At first, we hardly knew each other. She intimidated me, even, due to her gothic attire and anti-social attitude. But by some lucky turn of events we began talking to each other. At first it was mostly meaningless small talk in the classroom when time allowed, but soon it evolved into what could likely be my best friendship to date. My friend also suffered from social anxiety (more intensely than I did) and not only did this explain her apparent scarily apathetic attitude, but it was one of the reasons we became so close to each other. We both understood each other in our struggle to become social while excelling academically, and soon we started having very

Personally, I have gone through a recovery process with anxiety disorder. Last year, I went through a dark phase because I dealt with the feeling of constant fear with no little explanation 24hrs. Even though everything in my life was perfect, I could not sleep, eat, and be happy. I was excessively worrying something bad could happen to me and I was unable to relax.As months progressed, my situation got worse that it impacted my daily activities in life such as going to school or work. I felt like I was suffocating deep in my thoughts and trapped in a prison. However, no one in my family could understand what was going on. My family would make comments such as stop fearing and pray. I felt so miserable that I could not have peace inside me.

Even though Hannah loved enjoying amazing weekends, they usually threw her off track when she entered the new work week. This past weekend was yet another one of those epic weekends where she enjoyed spending time with Paul, shopping with friends and visiting a new church.

I’ve always felt as if I was different growing up. I was, and still am a quiet kid. I didn’t know I had anxiety until my freshman year of highschool. My anxiety isn’t crazy bad or anything, it’s mostly an inconvenience. I had a panic attack last year and it changed me. I woke up and I couldn’t breath. The best way to describe the attack would be trying to yawn and someone punching you just as you get halfway through it. I thought I was dying so I went to the hospital. The doctors said that I

The primary stress in my life is my job, I work in the banking industry. Where I am currently employed I work in the loan operations department and was recently promoted to a lead position. Now as with any promotion comes more work, my stress was solely based off my new boss and her demands for the job and not wanting to train me properly. The one thing that was noticed is that our personalities did not click and it allowed for a stressful workplace. I am a calm person, but emotionally I was not equipped to deal with someone yelling at me and always telling me I was not doing a good job.

Stress can carve out your morals until it completely inhabits you. It can make a person blind and selfish. Then again, without it people would not encourage themselves to gain their desires. I set goals in life to achieve. Yet, what you want is not always what you receive or even deserve. The reality is there is always someone stronger who yearns deeper. It is the craving to surpass that persons’ superiority that drives people over the edge. The idea of “success” is a manipulation of a persons’ own validations and expectations. Therefore, people let stress and pressure devour their whole existence in order to achieve. Anxiety speaks, listens, and acts. Stress and anxiety’s intentions may differ from the host it engulfs.

I never really talked to Bernice. When we first met, she seemed intimidating, like the kind of person with a loud and proud personality. She sat down to meet me at eye level. “Are you feeling any better?” she asked, “I could bring you to the nurse if you need to.” I nodded with a no in response to the second statement. I finally calmed down, but my heart felt heavy. The air around felt as if it was pushing me down. We sat there in silence for a while until she started talking again, “I used to get anxiety all the time. I know what it feels like.” She shared with me the times she got anxiety and how she’s dealt with it, “it was difficult back then because no one else really knew what to do, but I promise I’ll help you out.” It was a relief to hear that Bernice was there to support me, and she never broke that promise. The heavy, cloudy air around me suddenly felt clear, and we headed back inside.