I will begin this post by admitting that I cannot take credit for its title. The inspiration behind the title actually comes from a sweater I randomly saw someone wearing in an Instagram post a while ago – the back of this person’s hoodie read ‘your anxiety is lying to you,’ and because I am someone who has anxiety and absolutely understands the validity of this statement, it stuck with me.
Anyone who has anxiety will probably enthusiastically agree with me when I say anxiety is a real bitch. It’s manipulative, draining, convincing and extremely powerful in the hold it has over the person dealing with it. Anxiety has the ability to convince anyone who experiences it of utterly ridiculous and disastrous outcomes of a situation that arguably doesn’t even require second thought in the first place, and trying to think logically and coherently in the midst of an anxiety spiral is not the easiest thing to do. Hence the significance of this blurb I saw on the back of someone’s sweater – your anxiety is lying to you, and there is some beauty in the simplicity of this statement.
A coping mechanism, if you can even call it that, that has provided me with relief in dealing with my own anxiety is forcing myself to think logically. When my brain is hell-bent on fucking with me and I’m having a lot of difficulty in pulling myself out of an anxious meltdown, I will often literally yell at myself aloud to give my brain a bit of a shock, force myself to take some deep breaths, and then invest all of my attention towards how I can approach whatever it is that is causing my anxiety with a remotely clear head. I will talk to myself aloud as I find hearing my own voice can help to kick anxious thoughts to the curb, and I will talk myself through the situation I’m facing. It doesn’t always prove to be effective, but occasionally, it helps, and that’s all I can hope for.
ontheedgeofeverything 
