Hello,

I’m a 25 year old graduate student and I’ve been struggling with anxiety for the past two years. I think it was the culmination of personal and academic stresses that led to my first panic attack and nothing has been the same ever since. For the first two months, I was so paralyzed with fear and confusion on a daily basis that could barely drag myself out of bed. I ditched classes, cried excessively, and lacked the ability to focus on much of anything but my own feelings. (All of which are completely uncharacteristic of my true self!) I’ll never know how I managed to finish off the semester, but I saw the need for change in my life and thank God I acted on it.

I ended up switching academic programs and moving home for a year, knowing that I’d been overworking myself. It ended up being the best decision I ever made. The anxiety didn’t disappear of course, but my life suddenly felt more manageable. At the time, I still didn’t fully understand what I’d been experiencing. Anxiety was an entirely new concept to me, and even though I was no longer experiencing crippling panic attacks, the nervous feelings gradually wove themselves into my daily life on a smaller scale. I noticed that I suddenly required more sleep and could no longer have caffeine without becoming shaky. I spent several months adjusting my lifestyle to accommodate these new and unwelcome feelings.

For a year or so, I seemed to be doing much better. When the anxious feelings did surge, there was usually a logical reason for me to be upset, and I could ease myself out of it with various self-care techniques.

Recently however, I’ve been having a hard time coping, because I no longer feel like the same person. I am overcome with anxious feelings at seemingly random times, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to tap into the energy of the ambitious, self-disciplined girl I used to be. Anxiety has changed my life and I’m here, like so many of you, just trying to figure it all out.