My experience with social anxiety

Ever since I was younger, I've always noticed that I would get more anxious than others. This was mostly in social situations, such as presenting in school. When I was in middle school, this started to get a lot worse. I would take out my anxiety and unhealthy ways, which included self harming. When my parents found out the first time they had a really long talk with me about what self harming was and how bad it is. That helped me, but at the same time it didn't help me stop. So I continued to sell harm and when my parents found out again, they took me to counseling. It was at counseling that I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. 10 percent of teenagers in the USA suffer from the exact same disorder that I do; and 40 percent of adults. This is one country where millions of people are too anxious to experience life to the fullest, and I was one of them. This being said I do live in Canada, but the statistics are around the same. I didn't know how to deal with my anxiety, and I always let it hold me back. I don't want you or anyone else ever feel like they can't do something because of a chemical imbalance has been established in your brain. I wish I had someone to tell me what to do so that I could get healthier and I could get healthier quicker, so I'm telling you to talk if you feel like you are suffering from an anxiety disorder, tell someone. Tell someone! Your parents, the school, a friend.You don't have to have a supportive family, some people don't, so if it is safe for you to go to a friend or go to a professional, that’s still amazing.  I promise it helped me and I believe it can help you. I promise it helped me and I believe it can help you. If you're reading this and you've already been diagnosis anxiety, sometimes it's still hard to know what to do.

​I decided this year that I wanted to be more social, I had a close friend that was more popular; and he told me how he would go to parties and he would have fun and I wanted to experience that. So I told him, and as someone who has experienced depression, he understood what was happening to me and he decided it was his personal case to help me. I had spent years not socializing, because I was so scared of rejection that I didn't realize how great it was to have so many people believe in you. And he introduced me to friends who have never stopped supporting me.


   I have very bad anxiety. It's a lot worse than the average individual. Even now, if I'm going to hang out with the same people that have accepted me so many times I still get really nervous, some things might not change. I am on medication for it because when I'm not a medication, I get physically sick. The acid in my stomach wears down, so I’m in pain, I can't move, I can't eat and I all I do is cry. So I understand what anxiety is like and I'm not some outsider telling you to get over it and how easy it is, it's not easy. I have had the hardest time, but I am so proud of who I am now and I am so proud of what I have done.


  I still have anxiety attacks. Especially at my job, mostly because I don't know the customers, I don't know the people that get upset with me. So my biggest advice for when you are having an anxiety attack is to breathe, that's what helps me the most, I shut everything around me down, I don't listen, I don't see I count in my head and I breathe to the counting. This seems to really help me, and if this doesn't help you, that's okay, so many different people have learned different ways to deal with anxiety attacks, so just find the way that works for you and stick to it, anxiety attacks really suck, but once you learn how to control them, you can start to take back your life.


  This has been my experience with anxiety, and how I have dealt with it. The first step is to talk to people. The second step is to start to face your anxiety. Don't put it away in the corner, you need to recognize it to conquer it; and last of all anxiety attacks. They're my biggest fear, but I know how to take control of the situation and you can too. I hope that this has helped you.

Lots of love,
Ashtin