To dislike the casual use of ‘I have anxiety’

[Sallytheseal]

I’ve name changed for this as I’m sure I’ll get a pasting but I’ve noticed SO many threads where the OP will not do something / expect special treatment because ‘I have anxiety’ and that’s the end of the sentence.

Anxiety is a medical condition and it should be treated. It isn’t a reason to just avoid things that make you anxious. For context, I had a traumatic delivery with DC2 and developed debilitating panic attacks. I saw a therapist, had counselling for over 2 years, forced myself to build tolerance (my fear was any separation from DC and I had to build myself up to longer times). It was awful but necessary. DH also suffers from diagnosed anxiety. He has regular therapy and is medicated. He still gets anxious but isn’t part of being a responsible adult getting treatment? I fully understand that doesn’t happen straight away, I didn’t seek help till DC was 6 months and I’m all too familiar with the state of mental health provision but if you already have the awareness that you have anxiety, and that it’s affecting your behaviour, then at some point you need to seek help or at least acknowledge that you need to seek help.

I hate when posters write things like, ‘I can’t confront x, I have anxiety’. I think it belittles people with diagnosed anxiety, as if they are helpless/ unable to change. Also, if you don’t have diagnosed anxiety, it’s weird to use the name of a recognised mental health disorder to self diagnose. You can say ‘I feel anxious’ which doesn’t co-opt someone else’s genuine illness?

I’m honestly not trying to minimise anyone’s suffering but I also don’t think it’s right to misrepresent a mental health disorder.

I actually agree with you. I think far too many people use 'i have anxiety' to express what are normal feelings of anxiousness (eg before a job interview, social situations etc). I know people with actual anxiety and it's a completely different thing and it can be really debilitating. My DH suffers with it and is on anti depressants which help him rationalise situations better (although it did take him years to see the doctor) and does mindfulness to help too.

The casual self-diagnosis of some is definitely detrimental to those who genuinely suffer and I think of in the same way as those who say they're a 'bit OCD'

Agree. Every man and his dog has it these days. It's used as an excuse. People don't know how to tell the difference between being anxious going to a big social event for example and being too afraid to step out of your front door. Feeling anxious sometimes is normal but people expect to feel cool and confident all the time. But we'll both get a pasting.

YANBU. It's like when people say they're "a bit OCD" or "a bit autistic"

I agree. I think a lot of people confuse anxiety with a situation making them feel anxious, which is of course a perfectly natural feeling.

I agree. I actually DO have anxiety (diagnosed, medicated, and with ongoing therapy).

I have to work constantly to keep on top of it. If you're at the point where you're saying "I can't do it" then you're in crisis and need immediate intervention. I was there a few months ago.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who are undiagnosed out there, but it does get thrown around a lot, it seems to me.

I agree OP

It's become almost like a buzzword and it's very often totally misused.

Agree OP. I have Asperger’s and anxiety is a massive debilitating part of my life and has been since I was a child.

I don't know. I don't think it's the fault of individuals that they can't correctly medically label their bad feelings. What does it take from you really that someone else doesn't actually understand how bad it can be? You should be glad for them.

Everyone is just trying to muddle along and there's a pretty huge scale of anxiety, it doesn't discriminate and always had the potential to become a serious condition. I'm currently very well but have the odd moment. Those odd moments, though bad, are NOT the anxiety you're talking about. But I do have anxiety, clinically diagnosed GAD. I don't need you to judge that I'm having too good a month to consider myself as 'havibg anxiety'.

I sure wish I didn't.

I fully agree OP. I have health anxiety and when it gets really bad, I just wish I wouldn't wake up. My heart doean't stop racing, I literally can't eat as I feel like I'm choking, I can't sleep without medication, I wake up with panic attacks, the intrusive thoughta hit me all day...it's horrible. I had to be put on Lexapro for a year but honestly, I just avoid my triggers or it's a slippery slope to depression.

I am anxious and I have anxiety are worlds apart but considered synonymous now.

Also, people seem to be confusing the word 'confrontation' with 'communication' a lot.

Part of me wonders if 'anxiety' and 'confrontation' are being misused because people have got more and more used to communicating via text/email/social media.

It's as though real life communication is becoming a much bigger deal for some people.

I agree. And I'm one of those people whose anxiety is diagnosed and at one stage I was completely unable to function. It was rocking back and forth and staring into thin air, not being a bit nervous about something outside my comfort zone.

Yes. Same with ‘I’m not obeying all the lockdown rules because mental health’. ‘Mental health’ isn’t about whether you’re happy with your lot or not.

I agree in.principal as someone medicated for my anxiety. However it is a word we all recognise, it's like saying " the weather is depressing" doesn't mean you are suffering from the medical condition, depression. Perhaps people would take both conditions more seriously if they had proper medical names.

We don't call diabetes "sugar intolerance" it has its own medical term.

If we want people to take mental health seriously perhaps we should stop accepting this kind of blurring of the lines between medical conditions and feeling a bit worried/sad/scared. Those of us with the medical conditions.know there is a difference so let's give them a different name.

Yes. It's a condition that does respond well to active treatment and it's the person's responsibility to try to manage it.

Not unreasonable.

True clinical anxiety is utterly miserable and it's a battle to keep it at bay, be that with medication or therapy and the likes.

It's irksome that a few have taken it upon themselves to self diagnose and then proceed to use their new found illness as an excuse for all they can possibly get away with.

Anxiety is a normal emotion which most people have at some point. I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying you have anxiety. It is the correct term for when you are feeling worried, tense or afraid.

Anxiety becomes a mental health problem when it affects your ability to live your life as you want - whether diagnosed or not.

Both uses of the word are correct.

I completely get where your coming from everyone and his mother has anxiety all of a sudden!

I disagree. I don't see why having a diagnosis makes anxiety "real".

My dd is autistic and has generalised anxiety, too many people use the term casually, similarly depressed is used and mental health issues more generally when people just mean life isn't a bed of roses

@JOULES2002

I completely get where your coming from everyone and his mother has anxiety all of a sudden!

So very true

I have diagnosed anxiety, doesn't mean I'm always going to go into detail about it on here 🤷‍♀️

Before I was diagnosed with anxiety I had anxiety though

Agreed OP
I really dislike when ppl put up a post where they were basically an arse then end with ; go easy on me I have anxiety 🙄
Whether they do or not it’s not an excuse to be an arse.

Anxiety is a normal emotion which most people have at some point. I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying you have anxiety. It is the correct term for when you are feeling worried, tense or afraid.

Surely 'I am anxious about that' would be the correct term?

To say you have anxiety strongly implies you have a mental illness.

Maybe you need a new word for the medical condition.