Anxiety vs. Feeling Anxious: When do Emotions Become a Mental Health Disorder?

In support of University Mental Health Day on Thursday 5th March, this week, the Her Campus Nottingham team are writing content on the topic of mental health to help raise awareness of mental health in higher education.

*the following article contains themes which some readers may find triggering. Please read with caution.

I should first start by saying that the question I propose in the title to this article, I have no answer for. It is something I have pondered for many years now. Where can a line be drawn between feeling anxious and having anxiety? 

As someone who has a diagnosed anxiety disorder, I don’t get offended when people say they “have” anxiety, when in fact they are just feeling anxious, but I have friends who do. Friends who have been through countless Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, are on multiple medications, struggle to leave the house and yet their umbrella diagnosis ‘Anxiety’ is also being used by someone who is feeling a little stressed and uneasy. 

I don’t believe I am in any position to tell anyone how they should or shouldn’t feel, and how they should label those said feelings. Everyone’s interpretations are valid. However, I understand the frustrations people feel when their mental health diagnosis can be seen to be undermined or rendered as a passing emotion. Something expected and a part of everyday life. Something that everyone goes through. 

Everyone will feel anxious at some point in their life. Going on a date, going on a flight, sending a risky text message – all things which could initiate the feeling of anxiety. For me, the difference between feeling anxious and having anxiety can be addressed with the notion of rationality. 

Often when people feel anxious, their reasonings are rational. You are confronted with a situation which evokes a nervous, stressed or uneasy reaction, and so you subsequently feel anxious. This could mean you feel nauseous, your body might shake, you might sweat, etc. There are many physical reactions to feeling anxious. 

My main frustration with having anxiety is that, most of the time, it is completely irrational. I could be having tea with one of my closest friends, or simply sat alone in my bedroom and be hit with a wave of impending doom. Your chest begins to tighten, and your body starts to go through all the motions previously mentioned when feeling anxious. However, there is absolutely no reason for you to feel this way. It can be humiliating. Debilitating. Isolating. You feel stupid, and end up in a conflict with yourself, asking, ‘why am I feeling this way?’.

It has taken me a long time to finally realise that, I am in fact not mad, but that science is doing its weird chemical “thing” (can you tell I am an English student, not Science student…) and that I actually don’t have any control over it. Some people manage to find coping mechanisms on their own, and others need a bit of a helping hand (in the form therapy, meditation, etc).

Everyone’s emotions are valid. 

Everyone’s mental health is valid. 

Just be aware that using terms such as ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Depression’ so casually to discuss everyday emotions can be offensive to those for whom it encompasses a much bigger problem.

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