Adjusting to the Fact that Chronic Anxiety is a Mental Illness

Anxiety is a painful mental illness and very difficult to overcome. Highly anxious states make it difficult to breathe, let alone to function. It interferes with concentration and diminishes the ability to think clearly. It is painful and feels inescapable. Anxiety can often feel like dying. Anxiety is an excruciating pain, and those who suffer with chronic anxiety become experts at hiding it from the world.

The need to hide chronic anxiety from the world should not exist any more than the need to hide cancer or any other illness. Those with anxiety should be treated with as much care as any other person with a chronic illness. If this were the case, it would make victories in the battle with chronic anxiety easier to achieve.

People who battle chronic anxiety cannot “just relax” or “take it one day at a time”. Anxiety sufferers are often surviving moment to moment. Anxiety is often felt throughout the body. Anxiety affects memory, sleep, patience, and self esteem. People with anxiety deserve the right to have the fact that they are ill recognized and the stigma removed.

An anxious life is one filled with pain, doubt, fear, and frustration. Anxiety can diminish the very will to live as it saps all the joy from life. Anxiety strikes without warning and, often, without reason. Those who suffer with anxiety are not “being dramatic” or “seeking attention”. Often, attention is the last thing someone suffering from anxiety wants.

Those who do suffer with anxiety need help. The battle with anxiety should not be fought alone. Chronic anxiety is a serious mental health issue and should be treated as such. If you suffer from anxiety, seek help and get support from a trained professional. There have been a lot advances in the treatment of chronic anxiety and having the support of a trained professional will change your life for the better.

Posted on Sunday: 07 June, 2015