Mandy-Sue Christensen
06-18-2013, 07:12 PM
I am 23 and recently (about a year ago) was formally diagnosed with anxiety disorder. For the past few years I tried to ignore that I had anxiety as I didn't want to be labeled negatively by others. I thought if I just carried on with my life like it wasn't a big deal and that it wouldn't manifest. I was very wrong. About a year ago I experienced a debilitating anxiety attack while I was at work of all places. People at my job had no idea that I had even remotely had anxiety. All it took to throw me into a total meltdown was changing my environment without notice. This was the day that I finally realized that normally, people do not act like this and I needed to go get some help otherwise I may lose my job the next time this occurs. In this short time, I have come to find out that people who do not suffer from anxiety do not understand that it's not something I can control. I have been told to "not worry so much", "just calm down", "take some time to relax" and "stop acting like that". I have mostly been affected by panic and OCD anxiety and I joined this forum so that I can gain more knowledge of ways to manage this disorder. My family have been supportive, but like most people who do not experience the effects, they do not fully understand. Just here looking for some peer support and knowledge.