Anxiety in 2018

Chronic anxiety is difficult to manage and painful to endure. A person suffering from it feels constantly as if he were about to suffer a great loss. He uses up most of his energy trying to hold his anxiety in check. As a result even small amounts of stress quickly overwhelm his ability to cope. As his defenses become spread over too wide an area in an attempt to cover all possible threats his anxiety begins to leak out everywhere. Defenses become useless. In fact, he becomes so caught up in the management of his defenses that he has little energy left over to live. (source: The Language of Feelings)

This is exactly how I feel.

The excerpt below is from a blog I read a few years ago. Sadly, the author has stopped posting, but her explanation for why she started the blog really resonated with me. In fact, she was able to clarify and articulate what I wanted to express in such a clear and concise way that I will leave her explanation here. It is also why I am starting my own public journal:

I started this blog as an exercise in choice, a place for me to focus on the positive and define happiness for myself. It’s also a way for me to hold myself accountable. I’m an oversharer – obviously – but I can also be fairly anti-social. I hope that putting myself out here like this will push me to follow through on shaping the life I really want – healthier, happier, with deeper relationships and less anxiety – and stop waiting for life to just happen for me. (source: The Wordy Thirties)

Last updated July 22, 2018