What Anxiety Feels Like: 27 Illustrations For Understanding

What anxiety feels like is hard to describe to someone who doesn’t suffer from it. Anxiety is not what everyone thinks it is.

It’s not a light switch you can turn off and on. It’s not feeling anxious about a stressful situation.

It’s so much more than that.

Anxiety has the ability to take a simple worried thoughts to the extreme.

Here’s 27 illustrations to help you understand or relate to what anxiety feels like…

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What Anxiety Feels Like…

~The entire weight of the world is on your shoulders. But you feel too weak to bear that weight.

~Perfection is always sought, but never maintained.

~Bitter disappointment after disappointment for not living up to your ideal self.

~Every tiny decision has long lasting and devastating consequences that can’t be undone.

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~Everyone is watching your every move waiting to judge you.

~You’ve fallen in quicksand. The more negative racing thoughts you have the more you sink deeper and deeper until you’re no longer breathing.

~An invisible hand that’s wrapped around your throat causing gasping breaths. Except that hand never let’s up. It’s always around your neck waiting to squeeze tighter whenever anxiety begins to build.

~Irrational, racing thoughts synced on repeat in your head.

~A small mistake will lower your self-confidence to a new low.

~A volcano of pent up anxious anger that could explode any minute.

~A nagging negative voice that’s unable to focus on positivity.

~The endless parade of “what if” scenarios. Each scenario is never positive. Only what can go horribly wrong.

~Your putting a mask on each day. You seem fine on the outside, but inside your panic stricken. All the while, you pray it doesn’t show.

~Not being able to make it through the day without crying.

~Little things add up to make you believe everything is your fault.

~Your constantly feeling like your forgot something, yet you don’t know what it is.

~You’re drowning. Your lungs fill with water as you desperately reach toward the surface, but somehow your head never get’s above water.

~The world misunderstands you. They don’t see how anxiety affects your life.

~You don’t know what to do with yourself.

~You wish you could go back in time to rewrite your story.

~Your minds replaying every horrible experience in your life on a broken record.

~It’s crushing you to the point where you no longer feel like yourself.

~You’re a puppet on a string except fear, panic, worry and anxiety are pulling the strings and controlling your body.

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~You wish you could change who you are. To be someone without an anxiety disorder.

~You’re not in control of who you are and how you react.

~You’re suffering in silence. Trying to conceal the anxiety with a fake façade so people won’t judge you.

~If you try hard enough you can will it away. But that’s a false illusion because anxiety always has a way of sneaking back in.

Final Thoughts

While it may be one of the most prevalent disorders in the U.S., millions suffer in silence. I guess we all hope to some degree that the anxiety and panic is only temporary.

Like eventually the extra nervousness will pass and we’ll all be our old selves again before anxiety took over our lives.

But the weeks turn into months and the months into years… And somewhere along the way anxiety takes control of your life. You don’t know when it happened, just one day you’re left with a sinking feeling of how you let it get so out of control.

It’s no longer you making the decisions in your life, it’s anxiety that fuels your thoughts, decisions, and even dreams.

Breaking free doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t wake up one day and rid your life of anxious thinking. By this time, you’re in too deep.

You’ve sunk down the rabbit hole of anxiety. Now all you can do is dig your way back out slowly and hope you don’t become caved in.

But there’s always hope. When you look deep inside and realize your life is being controlled by anxiety, you’ll begin to understand that things need to change.

That small ray of hope tells you there’s life beyond anxiety. It is possible to not live in fear… But that takes time.

Your thought patterns have to change. Your life has to change. Basically, your entire brain needs to be rewired.

I know because my brain needs to be rewired too! I’m not perfect. My anxiety gets the best of me sometimes and makes it impossible to complete everyday tasks.

But everything is a work in progress.

The 27 illustrations above are truly what anxiety feels like for me.

Although there’s no cure all pill for anxiety, the disorder is manageable.

Everyone just has to come to a point in their life where they realize they are no longer in control anymore, anxiety is.

Once you make that realization getting help for yourself becomes a lot easier. So I implore you if you relate to any of the illustrations above of what anxiety feels like, then…

Draw a line in the sand.

So no more to anxiety.

Regain control of your thoughts and actions.

Don’t be afraid to seek help for anxiety. Know that millions suffer with many different types of anxiety disorders and phobias.

There’s no shame in being vulnerable and letting down your guard to no longer be the strong one.

Help comes in different forms for anxiety. Whether you prefer natural supplements, therapy or prescribed medication there’s help for everyone so no one has to feel like any of the illustrations above.

Remember~ You are stronger than you think and are capable of relying on your vulnerability to want to heal your mind and body of anxiety.

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