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What I Mean When I Say 'I Don't Feel Good' as Someone With Anxiety

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I stare at nothing, zoning out and forgetting about my surroundings. I bite the inside of my mouth without realizing. I hold my stomach in pain out of habit. I only get out of my trance when the people closest to me ask if I am OK. Each time I respond with “I don’t feel good” or “Yeah, I am just not feeling well today.” These statements are very true but the closest people to me have no idea what “I don’t feel good” really means.

I stare into space trying to forget about the anxious thoughts in my head. I may be worrying about a homework assignment or I could be worrying about something that happened five years ago. Most of the time, I have a tornado of thoughts swirling through my head, a mixture of daily worries, self-doubt and fear of failure. My heart races and pounds in my chest as I can’t sort out one thought from another. I bite the inside of my mouth as a nervous tic, thinking about the to-do list I could be working on. My stomach is in knots as I think about the large crowd I have to be in tomorrow or the presentation or test that lies ahead. I’m holding my stomach to try and control the nauseous feeling as my anxiety becomes worse.

My thoughts start to sort out and I start to think of myself as a failure. My head is telling me how I am never going anywhere in life, how I will never find a job after graduation and how I will never be as successful as I want to be. My thoughts continue as they tell me how secretly nobody likes me, how everyone talks about me behind my back. I start to question if I have done something wrong, maybe I screwed up and I am no longer loved. I start to feel alone and hated.

I can’t stop these thoughts and they become too much. My heart races more and my breathing quickens until I feel like I can’t breathe at all. The room feels like a big black hole and I am slowly getting sucked into it, being pulled apart until I can’t feel my body anymore. My boyfriend grabs onto my face and looks in my eyes and keeps saying my name until my breathing finally slows down. I can feel my body again, I can see my surroundings. I am tears and lucky to have someone to hold me.

“I don’t feel good” does mean what it sounds like, but it also means so much more.

If you or someone you know needs help, visit our suicide prevention resources page.

If you need support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text “START” to 741-741.

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Thinkstock photo via kotoffei.

Originally published: April 6, 2017
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