Having anxiety can feel like playing life on hard mode, where you’re constantly interpreting mundane events through panic-colored glasses. You are the queen of catastrophizing, a pro in overthinking, and your imagination for nightmarish “what if” scenarios truly knows no bounds. Basically, you could host a Ted Talk on what anxiety feels like—with zero prep work.
If this is all sounding pretty familiar to you so far, then you’ll probably relate to this list of common anxiety experiences. OK, maybe everything on this list won’t resonate with everyone since we all experience anxiety differently. Not only are there different conditions like generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and panic disorder, but we’re all unique humans whose anxiety manifests differently. IDK about you, but my anxiety changes flavor all the time, both over the years and even day to day.
Still, chances are you’ve stumbled upon at least a few of these classic Anxious People Problems. So take a drink—er, I mean, deep cleansing breath, sip of water, or some other positive coping strategy—for every struggle that makes you say, Ugh, same.
Just a bunch of experiences that perfectly sum up what anxiety feels like:
- Assuming someone is either 1) dead or 2) mad at you whenever they don’t respond to your text.
- Constantly catching yourself clenching your jaw or tensing your shoulders randomly throughout the day.
- Convincing yourself you’re about to be fired whenever your boss sends an innocuous, “Hey, time to chat?”
- Knowing caffeine makes your anxiety worse…but throwing gasoline on the fire by slurping down coffee anyway.
- …Probably because you’re exhausted after staying up all night replaying every embarrassing thing you ever said and did.
- Oscillating between your Fear of Missing Out and your Fear of Going Out whenever you get an invite.
- Making a decision and immediately doubting it…then doubting your doubt, no matter how much you thought things through.
- Getting an alert from your Apple Watch to log this heart-pumping workout, but you're just...panicking.
- Sheer disbelief at anyone who buys non-refundable tickets to anything (what if something happens?!).
- Scrutinizing the punctuation choice in every text you send (was that period too harsh?!) or receive (WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT PERIOD?).
- Wondering weekly if that new random symptom is the one that's going to take you out (and convincing yourself yep, yep it is after an hour of Googling).
- Overthinking your response to a simple "How are you?" because what if you say the wrong thing? And how are you anyway???
- Politely smiling and nodding when people without anxiety swear meditation and deep breathing will cure you.
- And fighting the urge to fight anyone who tells you to “just relax.”
- Procrastinating and stressing about a problem that could easily be solved by a single phone call.
- Convincing yourself you’re about to be the protagonist in everyone’s gossip the moment you leave the room.
- Struggling to focus on tasks because your mind is too busy creating fictional disasters.
- And just straight up earning the gold medal in Highly Imaginative and Improbable What Ifs (that you then convince yourself will for sure happen).
- Always needing to know the plan so you can mentally prepare for everything—like how you'll get there, who you'll talk to, etc. etc. Uncertainty is chaos!
- Dealing with post-drinking hanxiety on top of your usual hangover, because you’re sure you did or said something humiliating, even if everyone assures you that you didn’t!!!
- Choosing your outfits before an anxiety-inducing event based on what will best cover up all the sweat.
- The anxiety poops. Enough said.
- The conviction that you 100% left the stove on/keys behind/water running, even if you double (and triple) checked before you left.
- Preparing a mental script no matter the situation—and stumbling over your words anyway.
- Serving as the unofficial meteorologist in your friend group because you’ve checked the forecast 20 times just in case.
- Escaping for plenty of bathroom and water breaks to ground yourself. (You just need a sec, OK?)
- Knowing full well that your anxiety is irrational but still not being able to ignore it completely.
- Catastrophizing around even the smallest scenarios, because of course that silly mistake you made is going to Ruin Your Life.
- Spending more time replaying the past or fretting about the future than enjoying the present.
- Constantly debating with yourself: Is this my anxiety or my intuition talking?
- And, finally, feeling highly suspicious about the rare times you’re not anxious. And then getting anxious about that instead. Because of course.
Wondermind does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a replacement for medical advice. Always consult a qualified health or mental health professional with any questions or concerns about your mental health.
