Some people don’t realize or understand how hard it can be for some people during the holidays. People who deal with some forms of mental illness can find the holiday time scary and overwhelming. Especially those who have severe anxiety. The extra hustle and bustle of traffic and people is hard enough for a person with regular anxiety so think about people with severe anxiety.
What is severe anxiety you might wonder?
Well, anxiety itself is something that all of us encounter occasionally. The worry of getting things done on time, financial difficulties, work or school performance. The list can go on, but people who have a higher level of anxiety suffer almost constantly and about more. Those who suffer have a feeling of fear and dread that doesn’t go away. They wake up and fear the worst. Their fear is not something that can be easily controlled either. Special therapy and medication might be part of their lives in order to cope.
Just think about it. You wake up and know that you have to go to work but your worried that everything is going to go wrong for you. Some of us can change that thinking and bring more positive thoughts into our heads which helps. But a person with severe anxiety isn’t able to switch it off that easily. Have you ever had too much caffeine to the point where you feel your heart flutter or pound harder and you feel anxious for a while? Well, if you have, that is how scary and uncontrolled a person with severe anxiety would feel all the time, if not worse.
The fear of how they look to others, and the fear of the worlds judgment of them in every aspect of their life. The feelings of nausea, headaches and body pain connected to the everyday fear. They can feel that way right when they wake up and even when they go to bed. The sufferer may not even sleep well because of worry and fear. I know that if I have restless nights, I don’t feel a hundred percent during the day. Lack of sleep and insomnia can also be more constant for severe anxiety sufferers.
And what about the holidays? We all know that during the holidays, the intensity of emotions in the average person is higher do to stress, so could you imagine the intensity of severe anxiety sufferers? Some of them may avoid the holiday scene all together which is sad to me. Everyone deserves to be happy and have some holiday fun. Severe anxiety sufferers might even try to participate in festivities so they seem normal to others, but then back out at the last minute. This is because the fear and dread kicked into high gear and they can’t get control of it. Below is a list of some of the symptoms that anxiety sufferers have.
Symptoms of severe anxiety
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