Anxiety is my tormentor. It comes when I feel like I’m losing or have lost control of a situation. In years past I, while I was still drinking, control was my friend. Or so I thought. So now when a sense of losing control hits me I get anxious. The thing is my anxiety does nothing for me. What it does is put me on edge and makes me irritable. I get nothing positive from my bouts with anxiety. I’m not talking about normal stress. I’m talking about anxiety that shuts me down. At times I even stop talking to people in an attempt to regain control. Truth is, I control very little in this life.

Anxiety is something everyone experiences from time to time. Anxiety is a normal human response to stress. This kind of stress isn’t bad. Anxiety acts as your body’s built-in alert system. In healthy doses, it boosts motivation, sharpens focus, prevents procrastination, and keeps you safe by preparing you to react to threats. However, chronic anxiety is harmful physically and mentally. Chronic anxiety on the other hand is a persistent, excessive state of worry or fear about everyday situations that disrupts daily life. Symptoms include: