Anxiety by MedlinePlus

At the night of the 6th of April I re-posted a post on my Instagram stories, and I wasn't expecting the impact it had.

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with severe anxiety. For more than 2 years now I have become more aware of the symptoms and I do acknwoledge that living with anxiety, and its episodes, isn't a walk in the park.

Anxiety is considered a Mental Disorder, which means that it involves significant disturbances in thinking, emotional regulation, or behaviour.

In 2019, 301 million people were living with an anxiety disorder including 58 million children and adolescents (1).

The post that I shared was about anxiety: how could you react to a anxiety attack and the ways you can help someone going through an anxiety attack.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chef Burger® (@chefburger)

I reposted it with the intention of helping people who follow me on my socials that can be experiencing the same situation. Since I have a social platform that I can use as a means of conveying a message and raising awareness about this topic, I shared the post. 

The reason why I am sharing this experience now with you it's because a girl, 21 years old, responded to my storie expressing her grattitude for me sharing the post.

I was shocked at the moment, because I was not expecting a reaction like that at all.

She told me she has been with anxiety for more than 3 months now, and that she is still trying to comprehend how her body reacts to this feeling.

I took the time to listen to her experience and thoughts on this topic. By the end of the conversation she typed: "thanks for listening<3" 

That message made my day. It felt so good to help another person. I hope we become more aware of our environment. 

People are also humans, all of us feel different ways, be more emphatic, respect, love, listen, caress. I promise everything's going to be fine at the end of the day.

Please pay attention to your body, it is wise. Listen to how your feeling, and if you're feeling unwell please make sure you get the professional attention.

(1) Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx), (https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/, accessed 14 May 2022).