I Wish I Had Known Sooner

Advice from a 23-year-old? Yeah, funny, right? What does someone at my age know about life? I want to share a bit of my life wisdom at age 23.

No one cares

For a long time Since I was 14, my brain unlocked the emotion of anxiety. Anxiety was part of my everyday life, everyday interactions were challenging. Talking to people was difficult, I had thoughts like, “What if I say the wrong thing?”, “What if she doesn’t like me?”, “Am I talking too fast?”, These were the questions I would ask myself everyday.

Over time, my perspective shifted. I thought people were judgmental and scary. I was just exposed to the worst aspects of society - the infamous 1%. Social media played a major role, altering our minds. We are now fed the worst of the worst news. Why, you ask? It makes money. Bad news makes money. Negative headlines are click magnets compared to positive news.

Avoidance is not a solution

I started a journey, treating this emotion in a different way. Notice I say “treating”, not healing, suppressing or avoiding. Emotions are good for us; they are indicators of how we’re feeling. Trying to do anything but treating them only leads us to problems, the emotions are still there.

Asking for help gave me lots of anxiety. I felt judged - “Why are you so stupid? You should be able to do this on your own.” I felt like I was the center of the world and that everyone judged me. We call this the spotlight effect. Naturally, I started acting stupid and asking for help. I also started helping others more.

Do what you want

After a while, the anxiety faded. It became natural. Then I heard about the concept of asking for random stuff from people you know or strangers. So now, I have random stuff everywhere throughout my house. This has improved my confidence in major ways. I never thought I would be an extrovert.

It became clear that everyone experiences some level of anxiety, and that’s okay. Society often portrays anxiety as negative, but it’s a natural part of our lives. Despite blaming social media for it, we must accept it as a constant companion in our modern world.