Anxiety in our lives
okay
who here has heard of anxiety
okay let’s go even further who here
knows someone who has anxiety
okay i can see that a lot of you do well
congratulations to you guys you now know
one more
hi guys i’m saya i’m in 12th grade and i
am someone who struggles with anxiety
i was officially diagnosed with
generalized anxiety disorder when i was
16 years old
however it feels like i’ve dealt with
anxiety my entire life
getting diagnosed was not easy but
coming to terms with having anxiety was
even harder
i didn’t want to accept that i had it i
was ashamed
moreover i was afraid to have it i was
afraid that people would look at me
differently
i was afraid that they would treat me
differently i was afraid that i would
look at myself differently
and i did
when i got diagnosed i locked myself in
my room i isolated myself from my
friends and my family
i didn’t want to talk to anyone and i
certainly didn’t want to tell anyone
so i told myself a lie i told myself
you’re fine
you’re normal you do not have anxiety
i decided to ignore it i ignored it and
hit it for weeks it felt like
it was going well i was coasting by
i ignored every single thing in my life
that reminded me that i had gid
when i was too nervous to throw away a
gum wrapper in front of the class i told
myself
well who has the energy to walk all the
way to the trash can
you’re fine when i was too anxious to
take a test i told myself
well everyone gets nervous you’re fine
you’re normal
when i was even too nervous to tell my
best ask my best friend for a pennant
science class
i told myself well do you really need a
pen who really cares about biology class
you are fine i was not fine
i kept on like this though ignoring my
diagnosis pretending to be fine
it wasn’t until i had my first real
panic attack that i realized i couldn’t
ignore this anymore
now i dealt with attacks before where i
couldn’t stop crying or laughing i
thought those were panic attacks
turns out real panic attacks are way
worse
it started off slowly first i couldn’t
breathe it was like all the air had been
sucked from my lungs like a vacuum
and then my head started to hurt and the
room started to spin
i thought to myself i’m dying this is it
goodbye world i will never see noah
cyrus live
now let’s be real here i was not dying
however that’s what a panic attack can
feel like
my friend larry found me
hyperventilating with tears flowing down
my face
he said four words to me that changed my
life he said girl
you need help
after that panic attack i realized i
couldn’t ignore this anymore
i needed to face my diagnosis head-on
and find a healthy way to cope
so that’s what i did i went to therapy
and i was put on anti-anxiety meds
my therapist really put me through the
ringer she made me
angry she made me cry she even made me
talk to myself
i was forced to sit down and really tell
myself okay
you have anxiety but it’s okay you are
still to say that your friends and
family know and love
by having all of these difficult
conversations and feeling all of these
difficult feelings
i was able to realize that my anxiety is
nothing to be ashamed of
i was ludicrous for thinking it was
1 in 13 people suffers from anxiety
look to the right of you now to the left
someone in your vicinity right now
probably struggles with anxiety
isn’t that crazy having anxiety is
scarily common these days
it’s kind of insane that it’s so
stigmatized
it is time that we destigmatize anxiety
by having more conversations about
mental health
and by coming together and saying that
it’s okay to not be okay
i think there might be someone in here
who is just like me someone who is
afraid and ashamed of their anxiety
i am standing here today in front of all
of you despite my own anxiety to say
you have nothing to be ashamed of i
repeat
you have nothing to be ashamed of i pray
that it does not take a panic attack or
something worse for you to feel that
i hope that you can see that there is
someone who is just like you someone
who’s been there
someone who would love to help you and
to the friends of these people i implore
you
look out for your friends make sure
they’re okay let them know that their
anxiety is nothing to be ashamed or
afraid of
thank you
you