30 Mildly Irrational Things Every Anxious Person Has Thought At Least Once

1. You die at the thought of using a public bathroom.

2. Your lips are always jacked up from you biting and pulling on the skin.

3. Sleepovers end with you wide awake far after everyone else has already fallen asleep, because you can’t relax.

4. You rarely raised your hand in school — and despite knowing the correct answer most of the time — because you were worried you’d get it wrong.

5. You watch the same movies and TV shows because you get inexplicably uncomfortable at the idea of watching something new. Why change a good thing, amirite?

6. You assume all nasty tweets and Facebook statuses are somehow about you.

7. You frequently plan out the conversations you’ll have at parties or other social gatherings in advance so that you’re not going in blind.

8. Any sort of message — be it Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc. — must be screened multiple times before you send it so that you can be sure your message comes across exactly as you intended.

9. Someone doesn’t immediately answer your message and you’re convinced that they must hate you.

10. You become hyper aware of your entire body when talking to others, and then can’t decide how you should stand or move.

11. You give up on something because it requires you to make a phone call.

12. You keep an unwanted or defective product because you’re too scared to return it. What if they won’t take it back?!

13. Checklists are your saving grace in this world.

14. You see a group of people laughing and you immediately think that they’re laughing at you.

15. You hear a noise when you’re home alone, and truly believe that someone else might be in the house.

16. Someone else farts, and you worry that everyone strongly believes that it was you.

17. You’re constantly looking in mirrors when you’re out because you think there might be something on your face or in your teeth.

18. You remove photos from your social media sites if they don’t receive positive feedback shortly after being posted.

19. You dissect the smallest interactions with other people because you’re sure that there must be a deeper meaning somewhere.

20. You take a personality quiz online, get an unexpected result, and wonder if you’ve somehow radically changed.

21. Opening gifts is a big challenge for you, because you’re afraid you won’t give someone the reaction that they’re looking for.

22. You hear a knock at your front door and immediately become silent, because you don’t want them to hear you.

23. You see something expensive in a store and immediately imagine the horror of breaking it, and subsequently having to pay for it.

24. You show your friends a favorite movie/TV show and you sit there the entire time gauging their reactions, instead of watching it with them.

25. You meet a friend of your friend and worry that they like each other more than they like you.

26. You always think people are looking at you.

27. You fear that whenever you’re near a swimming pool someone is going to try to throw you in.

28. You’ll wander around aimlessly lost instead of asking someone for directions.

29. Even theoretical/imaginary/what-if situations fill you with heavy anxiety.

30. While reading this list, you were nodding your head the entire time.