A Metaphor

I got inspired to post again because a super cool blogger actually liked my last post. And that my friends gave me a bit of confidence. Well that and inspiration.

Anxiety and panic attacks are like the weather. When I’m have a bad panic attack that renders me useless momentarily (because things do get better and anxiety does pass) its like a thunderstorm. It’s really obvious when it happens: the rain is pouring, the lighting cracks against the sky, the wind howls along to the thunder’s roar, and anything/anyone near by is going to notice the effects. It’s slightly less noticeable when my general anxiety or depression have congregated and accumulated for too long and a rain shower occurs.

But people rarely notice my anxiety when its just collecting as clouds above. They are looking at their surroundings and noting that there is no rain, the ground is dry, and the day is continuing. I am looking above at my anxiety muttering to myself that the storm is going to happen again.

I wish I could tell you friends that the solution is as easy as not looking up. Anxiety provides all sorts of intrusive thoughts and/or physical symptoms to convinces us to warily look at the looming clouds above. I wish I could tell you that XYZ things will provide a magical umbrella to block out the anxiety clouds.

Anxiety is a war built of multiple daily battles that sometimes end up in storms and sometimes end up in sunny days. Sometimes winning the battles is just taking a self-care moment and watching Netflix. Sometimes the battles cannot be won until time wears anxiety away. Sometimes battles can be avoided by hanging out with friends or saying no to added on stress. Sometimes battles will happen multiple times in a row and you just want to cry out on the injustice of it all.

There are things to help on the battlefield such as therapy and medication, dog kisses, and my favorite personal weapon a bottle of Sprite. There are safe spaces out there to provide comfort and distractions. I am using this blog as one of mine. Hopefully, it can be for you too, or at least we can all gain strength from each other.

One positive change at a time -Cat