Imagine that you're getting ready to go to a party.
You feel excited, but also nervous,and you've got this feeling in your stomach
almost like another heartbeat.
There's something holding you back, holding you back from getting too happy.
"NO, you mustn't get too happy.
Better to be cautious,otherwise something bad might happen.
You start wondering, "Who should I talk to when I get there?
What if no one wants to talk to me?
What if they 'll think I 'm weird?"
When you arrive at the party,someone comes up to you and starts talking with you,
and as this is happening,your mind starts racing,
your heart begins pounding,you start sweating,
and it feels almost like you're dissociating from yourself,
like it's an out-of-body experience,and you're just watching yourself talk.
"Keep it together," you say to yourself ,but you can't.
And it's just getting worse: after a few minutes of conversation,
the person you've been speaking to leaves,and you feel utterly defeated.
This has been happening to you in social situations for a long time .
Or imagine every time you go out, and you 're in crowded places,
you feel this panic starting to arise.
When you're surrounded by lots of people,
like on a bus. you start to feel hot, nauseous,uneasy,
and to prevent this from happening,
you start avoiding a lot of places which makes you feel lonely and isolated.
You or the person in both of these scenarios have anxiety disorders,
and what I tell you is that anxiety is very common,
much more than people think.
Right now, one in 14 people around the world have an anxiety disorder,
and each year, it costs over 42 billion dollars to treat this mental health problem.
To show you the impact that anxiety has on someone's life ,
I will just mention that anxiety can lead to depression ,school dropout,suicide.
It makes it harder to focus, and to hold down a job,
and it can lead to relationship breakdown.
but a lot of people don't know this,
that's why, a lot of times, people sweep anxiety under the rug
as just nerves that you need to ger over, as a weakness ,
but anxiety is so much more than that.
A reason why so many people don't think it's important
is that they don't know what it is .
Is it your personality? Is it an illness? Is it a normal sensation?
What is? That's why it's important to differentiate what is normal
anxiety from what is an anxiety disorder.
Normal anxiety is an emotion that we all get when