People Living With Anxiety Describe The Feeling
In response to a question asking psychiatrists and psychologists “What is the most profound or insightful thing you have ever heard from a patient with a mental illness?” several people posted descriptions of how anxiety made them feel on a Reddit thread.
“Had a client with a general anxiety disorder,” one user wrote. “She explained the feeling as if she tripped and the moment where you don’t know if you are going to catch yourself or not is how she felt all day long.” To that post, another user replied: “Very good description. I once tried to explain it to a friend and only got as close as ‘When you tap your pocket to get your wallet, and it is not there’, but as they said all the time.”
Another wrote: “I’ve always thought of it more like when you see cop lights in your rearview and you know you did something worthy to get a ticket.
“Coming down from an attack is like the cop flying past you, heart still racing, kinda shaky, sweaty, and it’s all in the back of your head the rest of the day. You think how great it was that you didn’t get pulled over this time, but you are painfully aware you might not get this lucky next time.”
Generalised Anxiety Disorder is estimated to affect about one in every 25 people in the UK,
Anxiety is thought to be related to the biological fight or flight response to feeling threatened. It can become a mental health problem if it is accompanied by panic attacks or anxiety about things which are a regular part of everyday life.