My experience with Anxiety at IC

Anxiety is a tricky problem.  It is something that pervades your everyday existence so much that you learn how to live with it.  It frames the way you think, the way you act and the way you live in the world.  I have an anxiety problem.  For the first 20 years of my life, I was completely unaware that it was a problem.  I had always tried to deal with everything on my own.  I figured everyone found a way to deal with the problems in their life, why should I be any different?  One day everything boiled over.  It became too much to deal with and I broke down.  I simply couldn’t do it on my own.  I had no idea what to do so I stumbled into CAPS.  They asked me what I needed and I simply didn’t know.  I just knew something was wrong and I couldn’t keep afloat alone.  That first meeting I just talked.  I talked and I talked and got out all these feelings I hadn’t expressed.  It was therapeutic to just spill all those words out and not worry about what they meant.  I continued to go to CAPS after that day.  It has helped me to learn things about myself.  Most importantly it helped me realize I had a problem and that it was ok to get help for it.  Just knowing that people care and that you can express your feelings is a freeing experience.