Anxiety: A Personal Narrative Analysis

Anxiety is a natural feeling that the majority of people have experienced at some point in their life. For the most part, anxiety can push us to do things that may be out of our comfort zone and do the thing we may fear most. Even writing this essay, possibly some may have begun to feel the nerves trying to create the perfect essay. However, learning to manage anxiety was one of the most difficult obstacles I have ever had to struggle with. Friedrich Nietzsche states, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger,” and in my case, it relates closely to my personal challenge to what is known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
What felt like “painful butterflies” in my stomach and negative thoughts that seemed to course rapidly by the milliseconds occurred from a younger age. Upon speaking about these confusing feelings, I was told it was because I …show more content…
Thinking to myself that it did not matter or it could wait. Having issues at home, such as a family that was constantly working and dealing with financial issues, meant that I was even more inclined to put my own issues aside. Even though the turbulent emotions continued to affect me daily, I tried incredibly to keep it to the back of my mind. My adolescent mindset in conjunction with my anxiety also caused me to continually think about other people’s perspective of me. I would worry about coming off the wrong way or being anything other than what I wanted people to think of me as. Consequently, my day-to-day life started to become much harder. I became more anxious than ever as the school days went by, my grades started to drop immensely, my health started to suffer, and my social life decreased to become almost nonexistent. However what was most affected was the relationship I had with myself. My self-esteem was belittled, and life felt miserable to me. The more I pushed aside this conflict, the more I lost myself and the more I felt I hit rock