Now, I bet you\u2019re wondering if you\u2019re reading this right because I don\u2019t sound like a person who has anxiety, right? I\u2019m \u201ctoo extroverted\u201d\u2014 right? For a very long time I thought the same way. \u201cI\u2019m an extrovert so I can\u2019t be anxious because I like to be around people.\u201d In reality, anxiety can hit any individual at any given time. For me it comes when I take tests, overthink, and when I\u2019m in social settings where I don\u2019t know too many people like when I am at the mall. I usually start sweating, even if I\u2019m standing in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other instances I feel the need to pace. It doesn\u2019t stop when I\u2019m alone either. Some days I can truly be my worst enemy, but I was even more so as an adolescent coming into adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During high school I did research, and I knew what was wrong, but I had nobody around me that would listen to me or how I felt. On the rare occasion my mother would listen to me, she would tell me \u201cBri, you\u2019re fine.\u201d or\u00a0 \u201cYou do well under pressure. That\u2019s something I could never do.\u201d After hearing one thousand versions of those statements I stop trying to talk about it all together. I suppressed everything actually. Then I discovered this app called \u201cWhisper\u201d. You can post anything on there because it\u2019s all anonymous. One day a friend introduced me to this app and reminded me that how I felt matters and that expression is a key factor in how I manage my anxiety. In other words, I can\u2019t keep it all bottled up.![](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/d_ayAthpA0C6ANbpEfVAUK-p-vEtexEQoS_LbSjDq_PV_uG11hTmEEWZG-UooCirTYJ-hA6-z21Jx2GBeuzgjyNtPQBNthygC7Xjd3uokqGdXtk_z2z9l8npOyqQpP77m_wO_nDQ\")
Reaching Out: Find Your Resource<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I downloaded the app, and simply posted about how I was feeling, and not fully understanding how to express what I feel to my family without being shut down. I didn\u2019t expect to get as many replies and messages as I did. All of them were so supportive and encouraging. It felt nice to have my feelings validated for once. I got many tips for finding helplines that would help me manage what I was feeling. The one that has helped me the most is the Arkansas Crisis Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first it felt so weird calling a hotline because I thought they were mainly for people with \u201cmore serious problems\u201d but when \u201cSarah\u201d answered the phone she was welcoming and supportive. She reminded me that emotional support is necessary in this process of healing and that I need to let go of what I thought. She was referring to when I told her that I\u2019m an extrovert so I didn\u2019t fully understand why my symptoms of anxiety are different from what is usually portrayed not only by the media, but specialists as well. Sarah had to remind me that a lot of those professionals we see in school only have enough time to go over the more exaggerated introvert scenario, and that anxiety also comes on a spectrum. For some it\u2019s debilitating, but for others it can be managed a bit easier. It varies by person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After this conversation I decided to go back and do some research of my own. I came across this website named \u201cHealthline<\/a>\u201d. I found it interesting that they had a list of symptoms, and some I had never heard of before. Some are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restlessness<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fatigue<\/p>\n\n\n\n Irritability<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tense Muscles<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trouble Falling\/Staying Asleep<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was shocked by what I found because all of these symptoms fit me, yet I had never been told that these were symptoms of anxiety. This made me wonder what other lack of information was there, which led me to google \u201cextroverts and anxiety\u201d. Most of the articles I found began talking about how much wasn\u2019t known about extroverts can have anxiety and then they proceeded to talk about introverts and gave multiple examples of how you can notice anxiety with them. A great example of that is the article \u201cHow Mental Health Issues May Vary Among Introverts and Extroverts<\/a>\u201d. This article had many examples to use for describing introverts, but next to nothing to say about extroverts except that we need to watch our reasoning for being around people and that we shouldn\u2019t ignore our problems. Everything was vague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n