[repost] jwermont rocks

[firecat]

I'm reposting this because the original mistakenly quoted a friends-locked post. The post has now been made public.

My sweetie jwermont made a really moving, compassionate post about living with chronic anxiety. Excerpt:

This was the message I took away from childhood, and it's still lurking there, in the corner of my mind, waiting to hear validation from the outside world. And, this being a macho, bravado-brandishing culture, it never has to wait long. Fear - and especially, taking care of oneself around fear - is profoundly disrespected.

I think what the disrespecters don't realize is how much energy it takes to deal with those feelings when they are constant noise in your head. If a person needs to take a rest after pushing furniture around for hours, or running a marathon, then there should be no shame in a person's taking a rest from holding chronic anxiety at bay for long enough to participate in ordinary life.

Comments

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear that. I have low-grade chronic anxiety. Sometimes, even now that I'm on medication that helps alleviate it, I just want the privilege of freaking out for a minute before I go into logical mode. It feels better not to have to bottle it all the time.

[firecat]

Yeah. Freaking out for a minute should be allowed.

I agree

[xf85goblin.livejournal.com]

Problem is employment....it takes a lot of very high quality cheese between one's ears to get forgiveness for that. My condition is kind of like that. Under stress, my brain floats away in a bucket. There was no bidding war for my particular four pounds of gorgonzola. So, I await disability. It isn't so much macho worshipping as the fact that the job market wants perfect employees for minimum wage for all positions. Its an imperfection, as such the gods of market forces must be paid.

[ailbhe]

Just watyou wrotemakes mewant to cry. Going to read original ost now.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, indeedy, exactly that.

You betcha I do fear and anxiety A Lot

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

One odd story about how chronic anxiety saved a man's life is from the WTC disaster. A man who had trouble with anxiety was in his office when the first plane hit. He was told to stay put, not panic, await rescue. Instead he ran down all those flights of stairs, out of the building, down the street. Then the second plane hit and the building collapsed. He lived.