Let’s be real: anxiety sucks
Living with anxiety day in and day out can be exhausting and can make life hard to deal with. If you’re one of the 40 million people that suffer from this mood disorder, you know what it’s like to have these thoughts rule your entire day. With the world in the state it’s in today, it can be hard to find the humor in our everyday lives. That’s where social media comes into play. A blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it, social media can allow us to see the realities of our world or serve as a distraction from it.
Memes have become a humorous distraction from the perils of this world in the 21st century. If you have anxiety, you’ve probably come across a few memes about your mood disorder that have made you chuckle. And while it may not be a cure for your symptoms, it is a nice way to escape for a while.
While the best course of action will always be to seek assistance from a mental health professional, everyone-especially those with anxiety- deserves a little bit of humor in their life. Here are 25 memes that those suffering from anxiety can relate to.
The fun perk of having anxiety is that you never know what exactly is causing you to be anxious. Whether it’s Starbucks not having your favorite breakfast sandwich, or your grades tanking, the possibilities are endless. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Nothing sets off your anxiety like someone telling you they need to “talk.” What’s worse? When you’ve set yourself for the worst possible outcome, only for it not even to be serious.
We’ve all been there. The problem couldn’t possibly be that we have anxiety but that we haven’t gotten what we wanted out of life. Love, you might just need therapy, and that’s okay!
You’re not a burden to your friends; you just have anxiety. And chances are? They do too.
It’s easy to let your anxiety get you into the cycle of making the same bad decisions. It’s hard to change your behavior when you feel like your mood disorder is the driver in the front seat of your car. Just know that though it may seem impossible, you can always take your wheel back from it.
Unfortunately, this is more common than we’d like to believe, and someone’s anxiety disorder can actually stem from this kind of treatment from people in their childhood. Our thoughts make us think that even the best-intentioned people have ulterior motives. I know it’s hard to believe, but there are actually nice people in this world that don’t want to make fun of you. I know, shocking, right?
Even if you don’t have anxiety, all introverts can relate to this one. Typing on a screen gives us more confidence than being in a room with a bunch of people you might not even like. Sometimes we’re stronger alone. Or so we keep telling ourselves.
Receiving unsolicited advice about your anxiety can be the worst. Do these people not understand the world is ending? Have they not googled global warming lately?
As if having a generalized anxiety disorder wasn’t enough, add in literally everything else that has happened in the last two years and tell me everyone in the world doesn’t have some form of anxiety.
If you’re well-acquainted with having panic attacks, you master the art of acting normal in public, even when it feels like the world, quite literally, is ending.
You might not be on America’s Most Wanted, but when an unknown number calls you, you might as well be. The panic that comes with the unknown, even if it’s just a number you’re unfamiliar with, can cause our minds to come up with the worst possible scenario. Let’s not talk about the embarrassment that comes when you find out it’s just a telemarketer.
Living in a constant state of anxiety can be so normal, that when it’s not there, we think that something must be wrong. Having a good day? Nope, that can’t be it. It must be impending doom. Yes, that sounds about right.
While it would be great if we could see into the future, we can’t. Telling that to your anxiety is another story. We always seem to fall for it, though.
A five-second interaction calls for us to think about it for the next five years. The worst part? When you finally stop over analyzing it, and then a year later, your anxiety brings it up again.
Quite possibly the worst thing you can say to someone who has anxiety. Anxiety doesn’t care what it is; it just has to be something or, everything is wrong all at once.
Tone never comes across correctly in text, not that our anxiety cares about that. Add in the one-word replies? Yikes. I will now proceed to think about everything I could have possibly done wrong, thus creating something out of nothing.
Well, I was having a good day until my anxiety told me it was too good to be true. Anxiety tells us that if we’re having a good day, then something has to go wrong. Why? Well, that’s something you’ll have to ask my brain, and even then, I don’t think it knows why either.
When overachieving your whole life turns into a mental health diagnosis. Not to worry, you’ll get good grades, but you’ll cry about it in the shower later.
Education burnout is real. When younger generations are constantly in the know about all the terrible things in the world and then constantly told to proceed as normal and get an education, it can be hard to have good mental health. Especially when older generations’ solution to mental health concerns is to not talk about it. How are we supposed to get a good education when no one wants to talk about how badly our mental health can affect our grades?
When you try to overcome your social anxiety by going to a social event, only to get anxiety from actually having to follow through with it. But hey, at least you were excited about it for a total of five seconds. Baby steps.
The joys of not suffering from an anxiety disorder. A tip for anyone who has a person in their life that suffers from anxiety, don’t ever say this to them. This is probably the worst thing you can say to someone who may have debilitating anxiety. Chances are, they have already said this to themselves a hundred times, and yet guess what? They’re still anxious.
Doesn’t every adult tell us when we’re young to fake it ‘til we make it? That eventually we all get to where we need to be.?However, for those of us with anxiety, this one might take a little longer than they anticipated.
Who needs a therapist when you have caffeine and Twitter? But in all seriousness, even though we cope in the best way we know how, there are better ways to cope with your anxiety. Seeking help from professionals is a healthy and non-social media way to get better coping mechanisms than downing a Starbucks espresso and hoping for the best.
When I say I don’t care about something, assume I care about every single thing humanly possible. Then multiply that number by a thousand.
This doesn’t stop me from thinking of every worst possible scenario there is, and trying to figure out a hundred different ways to prevent them from happening.
While it might not seem like it at times, there is humor to be found in dealing with an anxiety disorder. Sometimes being able to see that others can relate to what you’re going through can make the anxiety easier to deal with. While memes can’t cure your mood disorder, they can show that you are definitely not the only one who struggles with anxious thoughts. More people than you think understand what it’s like to have anxiety, and maybe that won’t make a difference in your own anxious peril, but at least you know you’ll never be alone.
