Signs

The more I look at anxiety disorders the more I realize this devil has plagued my life before this past year.

I remember as a child being left with a babysitter fretting about what might happen to my parents while they were out and about.  I worried myself to sleep about real life monsters; break-ins, murderers, car accidents, and house fires.

Some of the things people with general anxiety disorder do are: worry about things incessantly (especially those they have no control over), pick at the the skin around or bite their nails, pick the top layer of skin off their lips, rock themselves, or curl up into a ball to make themselves as small as possible.  I've also noticed that I tend to rub my lips together until they become chapped when I'm extra anxious.  These things we do don't make us weird, they are tics we cannot help displaying as our anxiety becomes unleashed.

A lot of people with anxiety disorders turn to self-medication: drugs and alcohol.  I wouldn't recommend it as a cure unless you're all right with further damaging your already fragile body and psyche, possibly becoming an addict, and potentially disrupting the lives of those you care about most as well.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the occasional drink is bad, just that it isn't a treatment or a cure.  The anxiety can't be willed away by the numbness of substance abuse.

When I exhibit these signs (as I realized I was rubbing my lips together constantly today making them more and more chapped) I know something, even if I don't know what (I often don't), is causing my anxiety to flare up.  I know I need to take time to calm myself, focus on letting go and relaxing, and ultimately have my medication on hand should it become needed.

It seems I learn something new about this problem of mine every day.  The more educated I am about it the easier it becomes to deal with.  I hope others can relate. :)