About My Life

Throughout my life, I’ve had to deal with a common but challenging condition. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder during my freshman year of high school but I had been suffering from it long before that. For as long as I can remember, I would get horrible stomach aches frequently for no reason. It wasn’t until this past year that I really learned to overcome it.

Living a normal teenage life became literally impossible for me. I was too afraid to sleepover at friends houses, go to the movie theater or even sit inside a classroom. I would have panic attacks often and would feel embarrassed and insecure because people couldn’t understand why I was crying and shaking. They thought I was doing it for no reason I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me and neither could anyone else. My parents would punish me for feeling sick all the time because they thought that all I wanted was attention. They had it all wrong though, all I wanted was to be understood. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that my dad finally figured it out. I was diagnosed promptly and suggested to a biofeedback therapist. I continued therapy through my sophomore year of high school but had to stop due to family issues.

The middle of junior year was my breaking point. I decided that I was no longer going to let anxiety control my life. I pushed through attacks everyday instead of running from them. The nausea began to come less frequently. My life was progressively getting better. I could have sleepovers with friends and go to the movies without feeling like I was going to get sick. My grades started to rise and I started to become an overall happier person. Now, I rarely ever get attacks. The minute I feel one coming on, I take a deep breath and tell myself that I’m not going to let it control me.

I had always had attacks and in my early teen years, I couldn’t see a life without them. Overcoming anxiety has been one of the toughest challenges that I have ever had to...