ACKNOWLEDGiNG ANXiETY

Everyone feels anxious at some point or another. Maybe it is a big test or performance. Maybe bills are piling up or your signifcant other is mad at you. Whatever the cause of stress may be, is temporary—unless you have anxiety.

Living with anxiety is like watching a scary movie and waiting for something to pop out and scare you, but it never does, so you are left just waiting for it to happen, but all the time. It is not always due to a specifc reason, but it is consuming and hard to escape. This is the case for senior Rasleen Saran, who has been formally diagnosed with anxiety. “Anxiety is a lot to handle,” Saran said. “You want to put it aside, but you can’t. It is like a shadow, it is always there no matter what and you can never get rid of it.” Anxiety—whether Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Separation Anxiety or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)—is hard to live with, and can become more challenging when others do not understand it.

“It’s easy to judge someone as just being extra sensitive and over dramatic,” science teacher and academic counselor Jill Buensuceso said. “When a person’s anxiety is triggered, they can become paralyzed with fear and experience real physiological responses that they can’t control.”

Feeling anxious from time to time is a normal human response to stress and is not equivalent to having an anxiety disorder. According to licensed therapist Theresea Alloco, people who qualify for a diagnosis, in terms of anxiety, are experiencing a certain level of anxiety, regardless of a particular stressor, that interferes with their functioning.

“Honestly, anything can trigger my anxiety,” Saran said. “I’ll just be doing whatever I need to be doing and then randomly my heart starts beating really fast, I get very tense, my palms get very sweaty and I get really hot, even if it is cold outside. Sometimes I will even get nauseous and almost pass out.”

Those with anxiety disorders also have responses to anxiety that are disproportionate to the stressors. Having to speak in front of a crowd may cause someone to feel anxious for weeks beforehand, experience intense symptoms or even become paralyzed with fear.

“It was like my world was ending everyday,” junior Anneke Nijmeijer, who has been formally diagnosed with anxiety, said. “Not fun.”

Apart from just worry or stress, anxiety involves racing negative thoughts, an increased heart rate, diffculty breathing, crying, trembling and dizziness, all of which hinder one’s ability to participate in normal daily activities.

Seemingly simple activities that most people do without thinking such as eating in public, writing problems on the board in class or ordering food at a restaurant can be excessively daunting and triggering to those struggling with anxiety, including junior Alexander Pantoja.

“[Having anxiety] has defnitely prevented me from doing certain things,” Pantoja, who has been formally diagnosed with anxiety, said. “Even when it comes to having a conversation with someone and wanting to make a joke, but I don’t know how they’re going to react; I don’t know if they’re going to think I am weird. It can even get to the point of not being able to sharpen a pencil in class. I don’t want people looking at me.”

Furthermore, someone who has anxiety might feel anxious in situations that appear fairly calm due to high amounts of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone released into the brain during stress.

“When someone has had a pattern of stimuli in their environment that causes them to be anxious, their body is used to producing a certain amount of cortisol in their system,” Allocco said. “Their baseline is different than other people’s. Even in a peaceful situation, they are more likely than someone ARTICLE, PHOTO & DESIGN BY JENNA PLASSCHAERT Photo Illustration of Rasleen Saran

else if a book falls on the foor, to jump.”

According to the Alvarado Parkway Institute, a center for mental health and addictive disorders, these high baseline levels of anxiety can develop from a multitude of environmental, genetic and medical factors. Depending on the person, anxiety can begin with a genetic predisposition, childhood trauma, medical conditions that produce certain hormones, abusive relationships, long-term stress or a combination.

Nijmeijer developed intense anxiety during her middle school years due to the combination of moving to a new school, friend group fuctuation and academic stress that is a part of growing up.

“You want to put it aside, but you can’t. It is like a shadow.” —Rasleen Saran

“My anxiety was genetically predisposed,” Nijmeijer said. “I also struggled with perfectionism for a very, very long time, which was not helped by the academic rigor of our school.”

A common misconception people have is that avoiding stress will cure anxiety. This is not only not true, but also unrealistic because, as in Nijmeijer’s experience, balancing academics, personal life and work is bound to get stressful at some point or another. Avoiding anxiety-inducing situations can exacerbate the problem because one is not using any tools to process emotions and overcome them. The saying “face your fears” applies because the more someone avoids their fears, the bigger they become.

People experience and manage their anxiety differently. Nijmeijer fnds comfort in journaling about her feelings and the positives in her life as well as keeping a clean room. Over the years, she has acquired benefcial tools to calm herself in stressful situations such as a method called grounding.

“Notice three things you can see, three things you can touch, three things you can hear and three things you can taste,” Nijmeijer said. “Something to put you in your environment.” Similarly, Saran shared that suppressing one’s anxiety can actually make it worse because it bottles up and creates more stress. Accepting the situation and waiting for the storm to pass can quicken the recovery and ultimately help one to feel more peace in the end.

“It is OK if people see you crying because your mental health is more important than what other people are thinking about you,” Saran said.

Associating anxiety with weakness is one reason why people can be hesitant to be vulnerable about mental health struggles. This lack of communication creates a lack of understanding, which promotes the stigmatization of mental illnesses. Switching the discussion of mental health from a shame-based way to a compassionate way can encourage more people to speak out about mental health and help those who are suffering. Pantoja feels that having more people with a greater awareness of anxiety and its effects would beneft him.

“I would feel more comfortable doing certain things because

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people would understand why,” Pantoja said. “In the case of sharpening a pencil, people will think, ‘He doesn’t like being stared at. Maybe I shouldn’t do that.’”

As the talk of mental health and anxiety increases, those struggling will be more likely to reach out for help, whether that is from friends, family or licensed professionals. Nijmeijer and Saran have both experienced growth after attending therapy and feel they have better control over their anxiety.

When asked if there was anything else they wanted to share, Nijmeijer and Saran both answered the same way: “It gets better.”