Anxiety is loud and obnoxious; to reduce anxiety, shut up and listen with a quiet mind. Listen? Why on earth would we want to listen to anxiety? After all, it's a bully that messes with our minds, bodies, and very lives. As  true as that may be and as much as we want anxiety to leave us alone, arguing back or even agreeing with it doesn't make it disappear. Instead, when you shut up and listen with a quiet mind, you can reduce anxiety. 

To be anxious in an uncomfortable silence can create an unbearable quiet zone where all eyes could be on you. Anxiety, especially social anxiety, can flare when we're in a room full of people. Noisy chatter, clanking objects, clicking shoes, slamming doors, and all other background noise is amplified by anxiety. In turn, anxiety revs up, and all of this commotion can make us tense, shaky, dizzy, and fearful that we're doing something wrong. As miserable as a noisy room can make the anxiety-sufferer, when things go quiet and silence descends, it is often then that anxiety spirals out of control. Being anxious in an uncomfortable silence is common in social anxiety, but it doesn't have to forever plague us.

Living with anxiety can mean a life full of challenges, and the challenges of living with with anxiety can be significant. Anxiety can range from mild to debilitating; further, it comes in many forms and types of anxiety disorders. Despite the differences in degrees of severity and the way anxiety is experienced, there is a common thread: anxiety can make life difficult. Add to this the fact that the experience of anxiety can be hard for "outsiders" to understand, and the frustration level skyrockets. Indeed, the challenges of living with anxiety can be daunting, but we all have the power to overcome them. 

The causes or the effects of anxiety: which came first: the chicken or the egg? Anxiety has both causes and effects. It seems straightforward, but to those of us who have experienced it, it’s not always so clear which comes first, the causes or the effects of anxiety. It can be a frustrating chicken-and-egg conundrum.

It’s quite common for those of us who live, or have lived with, anxiety to bemoan, “These awful effects of anxiety must stop!” I have a serious question for anyone who has ever uttered similar words: what, specifically, do you hate about anxiety? Chances are, it’s the effects of anxiety that are wreaking havoc on you and your life.

You have anxiety. What does anxiety say about you? When we live with anxiety, we worry--often a lot. We can experience great fear, both rational and irrational. Do you ever worry that your anxiety is obvious to the entire world and that the entire world is pointing and judging? That's actually a fairly common concern among people who experience anxiety. Perhaps, though, the worry about what anxiety says about you is a worry you can put to rest. 

Americans love to eat. We have foods to celebrate, comfort foods, and even foods for specific events like popcorn at the movies, cake at birthdays, and is there really anyone among us who doesn’t feel pizza just tastes better during our favorite TV shows? Considering our culture of food, is it really a surprise to discover we are eating to relieve anxiety? Have you ever stopped and wondered why we eat to relieve anxiety?

Obviously, a blog about my lived experience with anxiety cannot reflect experiences I’m incapable of having: postpartum psychosis and anxiety after childbirth, for example. Thankfully, I speak with a lot of people and recently had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer Hentz Moyer. She was kind enough to share some of her story about dealing with anxiety and postpartum psychosis with us.

For all the success I have had recovering from mental illness, the one thing I haven’t gotten over is my deep hatred for myself. Perhaps “hate” is a strong word; maybe “severely dislike” is a more fitting phrase, but I am not in the business of sugar coating my writing. When I lie awake at night and think about who I am, my anxiety makes me hate myself and that’s okay.

Regardless of any mental illness I have, I am still a regular person with fears and doubts common to everyone. But because I also have an anxiety disorder, I’m able to use anxiety as an excuse when I doubt myself or am afraid of something. And I often do.