ontheedgeofeverything

I have struggled with anxiety for a solid chunk of my life thus far, and have no shame in sharing that I have been using medication to help treat it since I was 16. I went through some serious shit at the time, was diagnosed with a fun little variety of mental illnesses, and anxiety happened to be one of them. I’ve come a long way in terms of dealing with it with the assistance of coping mechanisms and therapy, but I still have my fair share of shit days, much like anyone else dealing with something similar.

I’ve also always struggled with perfectionism, and the combination of it with anxiety is not terribly advantageous when applied to sports. I’ve been involved with sports for most of my life, and you can bet your ass that my anxiety rears its supremely ugly head rather severely when it comes to performing.

I struggle quite a bit with sports anxiety, along with plenty of others, and it is not something I would wish upon anyone. It is beyond frustrating to literally battle with yourself each and every time you engage in a sport that provides you with equal parts joy and stress, all the while trying not to lose sight of what caused you to fall in love with the game in the first place.

I’ve tried affirmations and meditation, neither of which has proven to be terribly successful in calming my sports anxiety, but a forced change in mindset seems to be what works for me. If I make a mistake, I try to leave it in the past and instead focus my attention on what I’m going to do next, but this doesn’t always work, either.

I suppose the point of this post is to be transparent and share my sports anxiety with all of you in hopes of possibly making someone else out there feel less alone in their own struggle.

Photo by Thomas Serer on Unsplash