"Relax already"

[firecat]

(posted on a mailing list, in response to someone's rant about how everyone tries to get her to relax and stop stressing about everything)

I have mostly stopped trying to cause highly strung people to relax and I enjoy being around such people as long as they aren't trying to drag me into their stuff.

I think that wanting them to relax was a product of my own anxiety disorder.

Comments

[tsamm.livejournal.com]

I think that's a great point, the thing about it being a part of one's own anxiety disorder, because in some ways you want things *around* you to be calm, too. Sometimes, extreme anxiety can seem contagious.

On the other side of things, I really, really, really detest being told (1) that I'm overreacting and (2) to calm down. I think doing that only makes stressed-out people feel worse.

[firecat]

anxiety is somewhat contagious for me.

also, i managed to internalize the notion that one SHOULDN'T ever be anxious or shouldn't let it show

at one point i decided, i'm just going to let it show. it's not like i'm good at hiding it anyway.

then i discovered that at least half of the unpleasantness of anxiety was stressing over whether it showed. once i stopped doing that so much the anxiety didn't seem quite as bad.