Ignorance towards Anxiety.

This post below is a status written by a friend of mine about social anxiety.

Which i have been suffering from for years, but only realized what i was dealing with in the last 3 years and starting confronting it.

Me and this girl were pretty good friends but never spoke about this maybe if i had been taught about what i was dealing with in school then me and her would have spoken up and been able to overcome this sooner and enjoyed our education a bit more.

"Through school and college, I got told that I was just a 'shy person' and 'everyone gets like that' and that I just had 'low confidence' this was by teachers, family & friends. I'm not thinking negatively of them, because there's no way they could tell it was something else, on the outside i looked fine to them.
This made me think that what I was going through, was something everyone went through and i would get over it. It meant I went everyday over-thinking things. 
For example, getting on a bus I would dread daily, I would get on and try to find a seat as quickly as possible, I didn't look at anyone, in-case someone I knew was on and it triggered an awkward conversation. 
I always made sure I was early for classes, so I didn't have to walk into a full classroom and have everyone turn and look at me.
At college I would take the route over the top of the common room just so I didn't have to walk through past all the groups of people in there.
There's so many little things which became a routine, and it was mentally tiring. 
At the start of college, I found out we had to do presentations every project, I went and told them that I wouldn't be able to do it. My teacher said "don't worry, by the end of this course you will love doing them!" Obviously he was joking around, but I guess it gave me a bit of hope, thinking that maybe this is how I'm going to grow out of if. Of course I didn't, my presentations just got shorter and shorter and I didn't care what grade I got, I just wanted it over and done with ASAP. 
The start of second term, of the second year, I went to the doctors about it, and he told me its most probably anxiety. I always thought anxiety was something really serious, because I was never really taught about it. But he gave me some drugs which I was meant to take before anything that caused me to be anxious, happened. I tried to, but soon realised that its difficult to judge because I was feeling so anxious all the time I started to forget what the normal me felt like. 
I got through college I guess. The worst came after college and summer, where I'm not going to go into detail, but I was jobless, most of my friends had gone to uni, or had jobs, I had no job, I stayed at home a lot because of this, I started to dread seeing people more and more, I sunk into depression, was stuck there from September till January. Then I figured that I needed help with everything and managed to go to the doctors. Out of all the appointments I went to, I think there was only one where I didn't cry, which was the last one I had. 
I got put on counselling, and actually got offered a lot of help. Anyways eventually I got to a 'stable state' where I could cope with things. 
I guess you are wondering why I made this status? Because people with anxiety don't talk about much at all, because, well they have anxiety, we are scared of being judged because that's embarrassing, and embarrassing situations can trigger a panic attack. I personally think they should do more about mental health in school, I feel that if I'd figured out what was wrong earlier, then it wouldn't have developed into a bigger mess. 
Mental illnesses should be taken more seriously, because forcing me to 'grin and bear it' through school and college, I think just made it worse, it just gave me more things to worry about. 
Anyways end of long status, hopefully I honestly wish more people could understand it. Just because I look okay doesn't mean I am. Just because anyone looks okay doesn't mean they are".

Next time you talk to someone just be a bit nicer because you never know what they have going on in their own head.

If you are reading this and can relate to what is written then just talk to someone, your parent, a doctor your school counsellor even talk to your friend let them know, if they are a true friend they will understand and then you wont have to be alone anymore left to over-think things.

Also school and college can be difficult anyway no matter what, so just remember its not permanent and you can get though this but you will have to do it one day at a time no matter how hard.

Try to deal with what you are going though instead of living with it and hiding from it.