Normal Things Anxious People Fear

A little anxiety is helpful, a whole lot is cruel. Anxious people tend to have a very difficult time doing absolutely mundane and ordinary activities. We start overthinking every little detail, from will there be a hospital nearby just in case, to will there be a bathroom nearby just in case. We think too much, and do too little, it feels like we’re caged in our bodies, and our minds hold the key, as Peter Gabriel sings in his song “My Body is a Cage”.

Woah, that one sad start for a blog that calls anxiety fun. But think of it as observational comedy, where we reflect on ourselves, and see how silly sometimes anxiety can be. Trust me, comedy has helped me a lot to deal with my demons, we started to laugh with each others.

Let us talk about what we fear to do, and kind of embarrassed about.

Driving

This is probably the most common one. For me, driving was one of my biggest fear.
– “I am going to be trapped in a moving metal cage, which is trapped in a herd of moving metal cages. What if something bad happened?”
– “What if the brakes stopped working now on the highway?”
– “What if I hit a person with my car?”
All those thoughts run in our heads, and start making us more and more anxious. Sweaty palms, pounding heart, shallow breaths, and blurry vision.

Anxiety is a bunch of “What if”s. You should have a whole lot of “So What”s to be able to face it.
– “So what, I’ll just pull over, and start walking.”
– “So what, I’ll use the shift gear to slow down, maybe some hand brakes too.”
– “So wha… no wait, don’t do that.”

Exercise

As healthy as exercise is, we tend to fear it. Making our heart pound, raising our blood pressure, and feeling so tired deliberately does not sound like a cool idea to us. We fear that maybe exercising will reveal a terminal disease, or maybe we’ll faint in front of all those people and make an embarrassing scene.

I remember the first Yoga session I had, at the end of the session we were doing savasana – which is called the “Corpse Pose”, where you just lay down there and get you’re breathing back to normal after an intense workout – and I had a full fledged panic attack, I could feel my heart pounding so hard that I swear I can feel my body raise at each heart pump. I did not want to make a scene, so I push through it. After that, yoga has made me feel so much better, and exercising in general will make you feel so good.

You do not have to train like John Cena, it’s okay if we saw you. Push through your first sessions of whatever type of workout you’re doing, and you’ll thank me for it.

Out of The City Activities

Going to a place away from the city where you can actually breath fresh air, listen to the leafs dancing with the wind, and enjoying the nature, sounds relaxing, right? Not for us. There are about of dozen of “What If”s I can think of in the spur of the moment. First of, there’s probably driving involved. And don’t get me started about where the hospitals at, do you know how much time we need to get to the nearest hospital? AGES! What if we got lost, and some murderer came and killed us all? That’s not relaxing.

It is actually pretty relaxing to be honest, once you start realizing how silly those thoughts are. Statically speaking, you’re more safe out of the city than in it, and you’re actually having a good time.

In The City Activities

Probably, you’re having this fear just now, since I just said “Statically speaking, you’re more safe out of the city than in it”. come on.

Drinking Coffee

I love coffee, I mean I look forward to my morning because of a hot cup of coffee that will make me feel energetic. However, I fear the jittery feeling I sometimes get after drinking a lot of coffee, and do you know what make you feel jittery too? Anxiety. I start to think about that feeling even before I drink any coffee, which prevents me from enjoying it. If I drank my coffee, the feeling will intensify because now anxiety and caffeine are working together.

Look, I know a lot of caffeine is not healthy for you, but a moderate amount is absolutely safe, and dare I say, actually healthy. It’s okay to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning, heck you’ll be just fine if you drank one after lunch. Let’s start seeing the glass half full.

Having a Hair Cut

Imagine this, a guy puts you on a chair, covers your body, and then start choking your neck with a white plastic stripe. After that, he picks a sharp straight razor, and start stroking your neck with it, while he’s laughing, and you’re forced to look since he’s put you in front of a mirror. Then you pay him money. No, I am not describing a scene from the new joker movie, I am just having a hair cut.

I always get so anxious whenever I am having hair cut, and after I finish I feel one of the best sense of achievements ever. I mean I do look fresh. However, if I keep this anxious attitude towards everything, I might not have the hair to have a hair cut.

Watching a Movie

I can understand being anxious inside a cinema theater. Loud noises, you have no idea what’s going outside, it’s dark, movie plot is suspenseful, which is good for a movie, not good for us anxious fellas. But what I cannot understand why do I get anxious watching a movie on my TV, I mean I was just sitting there without the movie and my anxiety levels were okay, the only thing I did is putting a movie on my TV, now my anxiety levels are to the roof.

The Bathroom

To be honest, I do not know if many anxious people fear the bathroom, but I do, way more than necessary. When I was a kid, I was afraid of flushing the toilet because maybe during the time the water sound is loud, something could happen and nobody outside would hear it, and I’d be stuck in the bathroom forever. Taking a shower was so stressful, I had to leave the bath curtains open, scared of what would have been behind them if they where closed. Now, I am scared I’d faint in the bathroom, while the water is flushing the toilet, and the curtains are closed.

I know you might have something you fear about that you think people would think you’re really silly if you talked about it. But if I learned one thing while I am writing this post is that, talking about my silly thoughts is so liberating. To be honest with you, nobody cares about what we fear and how silly our thoughts are, so why not just have fun with them, even if for a little while.