Wk of 3.4.19

I remember the day my step 1 score came out, my hands were shaky, my palms were sweaty, and I had heart palpitations and nausea. I couldn’t even stand properly and kept feeling that I was going to lose balance and fall. Eventually, I had to ask my brother to check my result for me. I can’t imagine feeling like that every other day and how debilitating that would be. I think that anxiety is one of the most common hindering features, when it comes to mental health illness. A lot of the patient that I have had the opportunity to talk to, in the clinic, have trouble with anxiety regardless of their diagnosis, whether it be depression, schizophrenia, addiction etc. People are not able to do certain things that they would like to or are doing certain things that they don’t want to because of anxiety. I never thought how huge the business would be to treat anxiety, which depicts a big the population that suffers from anxiety. We should definitely focus on things that cause anxiety and in today’s age, social media/ Internet definitely plays a huge role, not only due to the fact they it portrays life as this perfect journey but also because it has decreased the number of face to face interactions. We talk to strangers, crushes, friends etc from behind the computer screen from an early age, never really getting enough exposure of real face-to-face conversations, which can cause social anxiety later in life. I think it’s very important to be careful about Internet use when it comes to interacting with people and especially, when relying on social media while growing up and forming an image of what an ideal life should be.

"Anxiety is the signature mental condition of our age " as Lavin express on her article. Anxiety is experience in different ways for different persons, even thought there’s a specific definition written on the DSM-V, still people aren’t educated about the different ways this can be happening to you or anyone around you. There is a tendency to people to reject the notion or feeling of being anxious due to the social stigma that this has on the world. It won’t matter the age group you are; still people have different triggers for their anxiety. The younger groups is the point of being accepted by other and the need of friends acceptance or tendencies to copy what’s new out there in social media, in the adult group more the relationships, matrimony, finances and work, in the elderly is more losing their independence or capabilities due to normal aging or disease., without knowing that this thoughts can be truly distressing and debilitating impacting more there physical as mental health at the same time.


As we see with the persons with High-functioning anxiety they live with anxiety, but identify themselves as functioning reasonably. Even though the are probable the picture of success and you won’t noticed it their anxiety because instead of been frozen with fear they are push over to their trigger ; but deep inside without notice it they have constant negative thoughts, trouble moving from parts of their day or moving over work/tasks, questioning what could be done, how I could have done it better, perfectionism and fears of judgment or disappointment, and this things can be very harmful.

Sometime we look in social media trying to see if anyone is passing or have the same symptom or maybe they recognize through someone else symptom things that being happening to them and as Jessie J said: “We push our feelings to the bottom of our energy and hope it goes away.” But as we seen more and more people are suffering from this so seeing people in social media, people like celebrities that we think they are perfect but being vulnerable and showing that any one can suffer from any mental health problems and showing the importance of seeking help, gives people the feeling that in a way the aren’t letting it take control over their lives.

Anxiety is not something to be taken lightly. Growing up, a lot of people would say, “that gave me anxiety” but then forgets about it shortly after. I feel that it was a phrase that was use loosely, and far from what true anxiety really was.

People who suffer from true anxiety, it was debilitating and some people has no idea how feeling anxiety can be out of proportion from the situation that caused it. I feel that people who has anxiety, also, may not be able to explain it themselves; except the fear and the symptoms that is associated is a huge threat, that they are scared to feel that again. People who suffer anxiety may not know what triggered their anxiety, so in turn, they live in fear for a long period of life.

I appreciated how vividly the author Talia Lavin described her panic attacks, "The rest of the time, I live within the ringing glass walls of my own panic." Those who have never experienced a panic attack such as myself, cannot even begin understand how truly debilitating it can be. However the desciptive metaphors and adjectives gave me a glimpse into the world of one who lives with anxiety. Moreover, the America we live in today, with its political unrest, natural disasters and personal economic distress, among others lends its self to create panic in the everyday American, let alone those with crippling illness. The second article I found interesting because I didn't know there was a term of high functioning anxiety and I could identify with a lot of those thoughts. Perhaps as medical students we all have these thoughts and issues we struggle with high functioning anxiety, navigating our way successfully through medical school.

In addition I believe that when more celebrities talk about their issues, it releases more of the stigma of mental issues and allows more people to seek help. We all don't want to admit it at times but when we see a celebrity act a little more "human", it allows us to look to ourselves for self reflection as well.