Jul
Articles, Health & Mental Wellness
All About Anxiety
All About Anxiety
Every single one of us knows the feeling of fearing the future and dwelling in the past. It’s been the human condition for a long time, and if we don’t keep those thoughts in check they can end up consuming our lives.
Anxiety is defined as “a mental health disorder characterised by feelings of worry or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one’s daily activities.” It’s a spectrum – anxiety ranges from a diagnosable disorder to an occasional affliction. No matter how it manifests, there’s not a single person who hasn’t experienced it to some degree.
Anxiety is particularly common in our 20s. It’s a time of transformation and uncertainty, where we move from a comfortable structure that’s been set out for us our whole lives into the vast and unfamiliar territory of adulthood. We now have to create our own structure and forge our life paths, which can be a lot of pressure. This constant fear of the future and feeling of worry around where we’ll end up and what’s wrong in our lives can persist for a long while and is often hard to deal with.
Our culture pushes a narrative of onwards and upwards. It’s easy to feel like we’re only valuable if we’re the perfect girlboss, succeeding in our careers as well as having a full social calendar all the time. This pressure, which is exacerbated by social media, can leave us with no time for self care and can even affect our sleeping patterns. This will inevitably result in an anxious disposition.
Taking time for yourself as well as getting a solid 7-9 hours of sleep per night is essential in managing anxiety. You need to take a moment to step away from your obsessive thoughts or it may get to a point that they will consume you. When we constantly focus on what has or will go wrong, there’s no time to appreciate the beauty of the present!
We live in an era where it’s hard to escape the pressure to be “perfect”, and one where we’re encouraged not to display our anxieties and emotions for fear of not seeming “put together”. Advertising convinces us that we need to buy some or other product to get to where we want to be, and social media tells us that we’re not good enough if we’re not looking like and living that life of edited Instagram models. Whether you’re concerned about your career, your social life, hitting milestones by a certain age or your self image, know that it’s all perfectly normal. You’re not alone in your anxieties, and you shouldn’t be afraid to express them! Bottling it all up will only serve to make it worse.
You are incredible and you’re exactly where you should be right now. If you feel that anxiety is taking over your life, talk to your doctor to see what options you have.
For more mental health resources visit https://www.opencounseling.com/hotlines-za.
rubies let us know in the comments below if any of you have been struggling with anxiety? We are all in this together!
rubybox HQ
X
Interesting article, i dealt with anxiety in my late 20s, talking to a therapist really helped
Love and light to everyone still living with it.
This is very important for me to read as I an having anxiety due to working without getting salary from my company,and as a single mother of 5(twins and Triplets) it’s very challenging to point that I found myself thinking that I understand people who take their own lives. However reading the article helped me. I will try sleeping longer and talking to someone. Thank you
Prayer has been my go to med every single time. The worst is that anxiety doesn’t knock or need an invitation. Trying to move on from a struggling past means u will always be uncertain of the future, and it’s a dark dark space in between. This even makes one lazy, I try with exercise and sending prayers up.
This is such a great article that needs to be discussed more. I think many people are dealing with anxiety especially now facing so many things we are having to deal with in South Africa.
So thank you Rubybox for this information. It reminds me that I am not alone in dealing with my own anxious mind.
Meditating seems to really help me.
This article really touched me as I’m facing a lot in my life and always seem to be doubting myself, feeling I am not good enough. I always struggle to see any beauty in myself but I am working on it. Thanks rubybox❤️
interesting article to read , dealing with anxiety is a balance trick of everything else we still need to deal with and sometimes when we are weak due to lack of sleep or overwhelmed anxiety takes over. Its important to be aware of your feelings and not suppressing them to act appropriate feel what you feel and let it all out so you can attract positive things to your life
As a person who struggles with accepting the past and focusing towards my future I obviously suffer from anxiety. I’ve been told by others that this is what I should become and should be and as a result I wasn’t able to embrace myself. Seeing people who are my age or younger in the media hit milestones really impacted me badly. I often wondered what it was that I lacked. I was worried about my future but still overthinking my past. I found that during lockdown in 2020, since I had limited contact with the outside world and stayed with my family, I formed a really good relationship with my sister and I found that it was relieving to let out these thoughts. I also found out that a good night’s rest and exercise is what I need to deal with my anxiety issues.
It gets really overwhelming, so I definitely need to find more time for myself and work on my sleep plan. I keep worrying about about my career, and hitting certain milestones by a certain age – since I keep seeing such young people on social media (seemingly) successful, happy and beautiful. I definitely need to reduce the time I spend on social media and I 100% agree, bottling it all up will only make it worse.
What infuriates me is when people say it’s just anxiety. Get over it, or don’t think about it. Stop saying you have anxiety. The point is that when people say they have anxiety perhaps they are in fact looking for help or someone to talk to about it! I had mild anxiety as a teenager, but now that I’m a full time working mom, COVID-19 stress and less sleep – my anxiety levels are through the roof! I have found it best to seek professional support of you feel you really cannot handle it! I say this because PPD hit me so badly – so I encourage anyone to go see someone professional before it gets out of hand! Having a great family support structure also helps! Please always listen out to those who say they have anxiety – they may just need an ear to lend! Xx
I could have written this myself. My anxiety is even worse now after having a baby!😢
I really struggled with anxiety as I was growing up because of low self esteem. There are voices of the society that say you are not good enough, social media doesnt help much at times because most people out there are posting or highlighting things that arent real. It’s very important to know that you are unique, noone can be you and thats your superpower.
I didn’t realise that I had anxiety until I had my first child, it’s like I was losing my mind, asked myself why so many times, I was supposed to be the happiest woman in the world but instead I was in tears most of the time, I was filled with fear and my past was hunting me, thinking that history would repeat itself, having gone through so much as a child myself, I thought what happened to would happen to my daughter, I didn’t trust anyone with my child, hell I didn’t even trust myself, and I thought I was going through this alone, I mean most mother’s around me looked strong and in control which made me feel like I’m not well in my head, but through prayer, reading life quotes, exercise and reading articles on anxiety disorders I felt better, I can’t say I have recovered but I now understand my battle and it’s not a unique battle most people do suffer from anxiety it’s just that they don’t talk about it.
I struggle with anxiety…… It is the for me the worst thing to have. Does it ever go away???????????????
I have been suffering with anxiety since I was a child, especially when I had to go to a new school, and to this day I still experience it and I’m in my late 20s… It would sometimes lead to panic attacks and depression, the sad thing is that my family doesn’t take it serious…
My anxiety it’s peak right now. It’s a lot for me and I think I’ve had since high school it’s scares me. I have a lot of mental health and I can’t really express or talk about about it you know because in African homes it’s not taken seriously.
Sometimes I feel like taking my life because I’m tired of always living in fear it’s too much for me. I’m trying to seek professional help