Anniversary wih anxiety
The One Year Anniversary of Being Diagnosed with Anxiety
February 2022, this date marks when my life felt like it was falling apart.
I have the picture-perfect life. I was adopted by two amazing moms with a loving brother, living a suburbanite life with a summer home, having more things than we know what to do with, given every opportunity I wanted/didn’t want, went on vacations, ate out all the time; I was given everything I ever needed. Because of the stigma around mental health, you might think why would I have issues? I have everything I need, people are starving and homeless, why would I be sad considering everything I have?
It all started my senior year at boarding school. I went to a boarding school, in Pennsylvania, two-hours away from my house, in New Jersey. February rolled around and I lost lack of motivation for everything. I, like everyone else, just assumed it was a senior thing. I already got into my early decision college; I was set. I pushed off schoolwork, would skip practices, and avoided friends. It wasn’t until I started to have panic attacks every day that I knew something was wrong. I went home for a weekend; little did I know that weekend I would be home for would turn into a month and a half.
That weekend I went home to visit my family, with everything going on, I thought it would make me feel better. I spent the whole time on the couch, sleeping, and did not eat for five days straight. My parents knew something was wrong, they contacted the school to let them know my returning would be delayed by a few days. My return kept getting pushed back longer and longer until I had to talk to the medical team. It was official. I was on medical leave.
The school connected me with a psychiatrist, we talked, I went through an evaluation; it was soon discovered that I had sever anxiety, which caused depression. I was soon put on medication, had bi-weekly sessions with my therapist, all was well. I returned to school a month and a half later, caught up on work and graduated on time with my friends.
Part 2 Coming Soon…