As someone who got my first anxiety disorder diagnosis at age three, it's really weird to watch all these abled people experience the concept of anxiety for the first time ever.

#anxiety #AutismAndCovid19 #CovidChat

That has to be really hard for y'all. And I'm being genuine. I'm often actually genuinely glad I've had lifelong chronic anxiety. I'm diagnosed with three anxiety disorders at the moment. That means I've had literally over 20 years of developing coping skills.

Anxiety is terrifying & awful & having it chronically is not a pleasant experience. Take all this fear you're feeling right now & remember that this is my day to day life all the time. Remember that next time you want to laugh at someone's anxiety disorder or say it's no big deal

It's not fun. It's not cute. I'm fairly certian I have actual legitimate childhood trauma because of it. Because things that seem like nbd to you were to me and I had to do them everyday while pretending nothing was wrong and hoping desperately that other kids would be my friend.

But it gave me over... a lot of years... a fucking crap ton of coping skills. Some of them were really bad coping skills. I wound up developing depression in my teens as well as a result of constant anxiety. But many of them were good, healthy coping skills that actually help.

So when shit goes down and I start freaking out... I can step back, say "hey wait, that's my old friend anxiety" and implement coping skills.

And y'all... don't have that. Anxiety is often somatic and can be terrifying if you don't know what that feels like.

It's... really hard for me to conceptualize what it must feel like to have clinical anxiety for the first time... it's really difficult for me to imagine not knowing how to name my anxiety.

But I can take a stab at it. Frankly, y'all probably feel like you're "going crazy"

I don't remember what I felt like at three when I first started showing symptoms, other than scared.

"Crazy" is not a term I like to use. It stigmatizes mental illness & harms us - those of us who live with it all the time.

But that's probably what it feels like, huh?