45 Things Only Anxious People Understand

Anxiety is the most common form of mental illness in the United States—even more common than depression. Here are the problems you didn’t know people with anxiety face.
1. Your brain is always going and overthinking. Thus, you have no ability to turn off.
2. Getting a voicemail from an unknown number.
3. Then missing a call from an unknown number will fill you with dread for the entire day.
4. It takes eternity to do anything because you are frequently lost inside your own head.
5. If someone takes longer than five minutes to accept your Facebook friend request, it means they hate you.
6. Seeing a set of people laughing and thinking that perhaps they are doing it at you.
7. Your mind is constantly racing and it never slows down.
8. Automatically, you assume passive-aggressive tweets from people are about you.
9. You want to have an interesting conversation with a friend but rather, the memory of something embarrassing you did some years ago cropped up, suspending your ability to form a coherent sentence.
10. Not getting a reply to your text message within five minutes.
11. When asked to make a speech, you will stress about it all through—before, during, and after.
12. You are always second-guessing yourself.
13. Eating something new and convincing yourself you’re experiencing a fatal food allergy.
14. The idea of meeting new people should be fun, but it isn’t.
15. People who actually mean well try to help you but at times make the situation worse. For those who don’t mean well, of course they will make it FAR worse.
16. Spontaneity is something that is never part of you.
17. Realizing you are running a little bit behind your schedule.
18. Suddenly having to use the bathroom when there is no bathroom for miles.
19. You feel like watching a funny movie but you instead worry about whether you are destined to be forever alone.
20. Randomly seeing a coworker outside of work.
21. When your boss requests your presence in his office, you believe you’re about to be fired.
22. You are never really “in the moment.”
23. It’s as if the only thing you ever want is to stop worrying, but you can’t.
24. Realizing someone’s going in for a handshake.
25. Fearing to sleep through the several alarms and miss something very important.
26. Certain TV shows are off limits because you tend to relate them to yourself.
27. You question everything that exists…every person and every action.
28. At every bit of the slightest plane turbulence, you begin to think you are all about to drop out of the sky.
29. You find it exciting paying the doctor a visit because even if there is nothing wrong, you will always find something.
30. There is no time you wouldn’t get exhausted.
31. People often call you a naysayer, and it riles you that they are so very right.
32. Having to pick up the phone for any reason whatever.
33. The sheer consideration of having to make that little talk.
34. You get anxiety about anxiety.
35. You bother about being a burden on the people you love.
36. Doing anything awkward in public.
37. If your car makes a strange noise, you take it in immediately, supposing that it’s about to explode.
38. You have a checklist of things you are sure you forgot to do, even though you probably didn’t.
39. Sending an email and immediately having a feeling you sent it to the wrong person.
40. When none of your friends replies to your group email.
41. Trying to make a decision is agonizing…and even if you make one, you keep wondering if that was another wrong decision.
42. Hearing any kind of noise in your house whatsoever, you become very certain that you are about to be assassinated.
43. Watching someone walk near you on the subway platform and getting worried they might push you onto the tracks.
44. Literally, you never feel calm.
45. When you hear how someone younger than you is successful, you begin to question everything about life choices.