You're Not Broken, You're Normal
I woke up feeling a little off.
As the day wore on, the discomfort didn't subside. It became worse. Around lunchtime, the tightness in my chest was intolerable.
I turned to Google to see what was wrong and that's when the situation kicked into overdrive. According to Google, I had the symptoms of a heart attack. My mind began to race as my anxiety went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye.
Hyperventilating, thoughts of impending doom raced through my head. Is this the end? I thought to myself
A few hours later, I stepped out of the hospital in Barcelona after being told I'd suffered a panic attack. While this was much more reassuring than being told I'd had a heart attack, I was baffled.
I'd never had a panic attack before, nor had I suffered from anxiety. The attack had come out of nowhere. Over the next few months, my anxiety went through the roof. Panic attacks were frequent.
I was convinced there was something wrong with me. Convinced I'd short-circuited a part of my neural wiring back on that summer's day in Barcelona. I'm not an anxious person, why am I feeling this way? I asked myself this every day.
It was only after going to a talk about anxiety I realised there was nothing wrong with me. I wasn't broken, I wasn't malfunctioning, I was normal. Human.
Our minds can be our greatest asset, they can also be our greatest enemy. If you're feeling anxious, you're not alone. You're not strange, you're just human.
Anxiety comes and goes. It roars one day and whimpers the next. But it's not a disease, it's not an error, it's a part of us.
If, like me, you suffer from anxiety, remember: You're not broken, you're normal.