It’s like there’s a wall between you, and the person you want to be closest to. You want to climb the wall, but you’re scared of falling, because falling means there’s a very good chance you’ll get hurt. There’s also a possibility that the person on the other side of the wall will get tired of waiting for you. So sometimes, you have to rationalise, is the wall worth climbing?

No one asks nor deserves to be anxious or depressed, yet it still happens. Anxiety is talked about a lot more today than it has in the past, making every anxious individual feel a little less alone. However, this can have some negatives.

I’ve suffered with anxiety for as long as I can remember, always putting it down to being shy or socially awkward. But being scared to message your friends in fear of rejection, being scared to even leave your house in case people look and talk about you, surely these things aren’t normal? I suffered in silence for the longest time – at school, pretty much everyone at some point says that they have anxiety, talking about it so calmly as if they’re talking about their hair colour.

It’s because of this that I was so scared to tell people, that people would think I was exaggerating and trying to excuse my behaviour.

There is a very large difference between feeling anxious, and having anxiety. It is very normal to feel anxious about any number of things; a test or job interview coming up, meeting new people, but anxiety is different. Anxiety impacts every part of your personal life on a daily basis. It has put an intense strain on most of my relationships with others because I wake up every day with an irrational fear that prevents me from being me.

Anxiety is real. It is not a phase, or something that just happens to you. For some people, it is their life.