A disorder as common as anxiety is and it turns out that we still feel ashamed of suffering from it. It is common for you to be ashamed of having anxiety, which adds another burden to the problems that the disorder itself generates. But why? Why is it so hard for us to recognize that we are suffering from an anxiety disorder? Why is it hard for us to sell and tell others? We are looking for answers, but one thing is clear and that is that the moment you can talk about anxiety naturally, you will see how it loses a little force.
Why are you ashamed to admit that you have anxiety?
That’s nerves. What happens to you is that you think about a lot of things. You have to go out more. You should be more positive. You don’t have any serious problem. Look at your neighbor, who just lost his wife, he does have reason to be wrong. But if you don’t have any health problems. Relax and don’t worry so much, life is two days.
If you have anxiety, you’ve probably heard these kinds of things that stick like a dagger inside you. And surely they are well-intentioned phrases that come from your loved ones and that are. They don’t cheer you up, do they? They make you worse. Because to your usual discomfort caused by anxiety is added the feeling of guilt.
The guilt and misunderstanding that suffering from an anxiety disorder generates are the causes of that shame. You dare not say or tell that you have anxiety because you know well that your environment will not understand it. If you don’t even understand what is happening to you sometimes… The reality is that many people avoid saying that they have anxiety, that they go to the psychologist or that they have had to leave work temporarily due to anxiety.
The shame of anxiety
We are ashamed. Especially if there is no specific cause and serious enough according to other people’s criteria to be this bad. But we want to make one thing clear: forget about guilt. Anxiety paralyzes, anxiety makes you sick. Everyone understands that if one day you have a fever, there are things you cannot do and you will be in great discomfort all day. But not everyone understands that the same thing happens with anxiety, that you are bad, that you are sick.
And if nobody asks about the cause of the fever or they don’t make hierarchies with the causes of the fever, discarding those that they don’t believe are justified, they shouldn’t do that with anxiety. But they do. We do. And that is the reality of anxiety. If you do not have a serious illness such as cancer or have not suffered the loss of a loved one, there will be many people who do not see your anxiety disorder as logical.
What are you ashamed of when you have anxiety?
With anxiety you suffer a kind of internal and mental collapse to which new things are added every day. We have already said that anxiety is not overcome from one day to the next because new obstacles arise in the process, such as phobias, for example. But there are some things that prevent us from talking about anxiety naturally:
- The misunderstanding of the environment.
- The feeling of guilt.
- The lack of answers for oneself.
- The feeling of vulnerability.
- The feeling of disability.
- Realizing that you are overwhelmed and you can’t handle everything.
Free yourself from the shame of anxiety
You have nothing to be ashamed of if you suffer from anxiety, really. The only thing you will get by keeping your problem quiet is adding one more weight to what you already have. Did you know that talking openly about anxiety is part of the process to overcome it?
It may be a little difficult at first, but dare to talk about anxiety and you will see how doors open up that frees you from your weight. You will discover then that there are more people than you thought with your same problem, who understand you, who understand you or who simply support. By talking about your anxiety you will also be helping others. Because only by talking and talking about anxiety can a disorder that affects more and more people be normalized and visible.
