Ask yourself

Like a majority of millennials, I have suffered greatly at the hands of social anxiety. When put in the midst of unknown situations one is given but two scenarios, fight or flight. While some see enjoyment in the challenge of the unknown, others shy away from meeting new people or experiencing more than their level of social comfort and I have traveled both sides my friend. For years I failed to see myself, so I focused on understanding the personalities around me and less on seeing my own. Feeling as though I were merely a combination of my subconscious perceptions of my life's experience, I can very much say I lost myself. Regardless, I made it my priority to leave everything I once knew in the hope of understanding who I was in comparison to those I spent my time with, and the older I got the less I similarities were found. While I believe anxiety to be the equivalent to a mental black plague, it can also be a wonderful protectant. When you don't know who you are, you allow yourself to become who others see you as and without thought you willingly except their opinion to be truth. Anxiety is driving force behind searching for one's self. While miserable, it has the uncanny ability to draw us within ourselves and while this may be horrible for most, it was in my anxiety that I was forced to face all of my fears and I conquered them like the baddest bitch there was. When you know yourself, you dont give a damn about what someone has got to say. You know your purpose here on earth, your passions and interests outside of friends or peers and when you have this awareness there isn't a thing that can break you down. You're free to be utterly yourself, and when you're honest with who you are as well as your boundaries, you not only attract people whom you genuinely have things in common with while simultaneously weeding out those with wrongful intentions. When you have no boundaries, you lose care for yourself and become the doormat people walk on while coming in and out of your life. When you care about yourself, you know what respect looks like to you and then in turn get what you actually want because the ones who dont care about you will leave when they realize they can't just treat you however. Recognize that we each have intrinsic value, and because of that everything about us is gift. While anxiety may seem permanent and overbearing take a look at life and ask yourself two questions. What in my life could be influencing me to feel this way? Followed only by, what am I willing to actively do to create the life I want to live? Anxiety will force you to analyze both, and in the end you may be grateful.