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