The #1 new-media brand for smart, creative and stylish women everywhere.
The #1 new-media brand for smart, creative and stylish women everywhere.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
The most common mental illness in the U.S. is anxiety disorder, with 40 million people currently diagnosed. This number does not include the many people who are either misdiagnosed or never seek help. So, it's pretty massive — but that also means it's broad and hard to pin down. What does anxiety mean to individual people? What does it feel like? What does it looklike?
Since spreading a greater understanding about mental illness is one of the most important ways to bring mental health to more people, we decided to interview a handful of readers and R29 staffers about what anxiety really feels like to them. We received a wide range of responses, from jarring, graphic imagery to descriptions of persistent undercurrents.
One described it as their "whole psyche fracturing and bubbling like lava."
"It's like a hot, muggy type of suffocation," wrote another respondent.
"It's a perpetual electricity running through my chest, scrambling my thoughts into loud static," wrote another.
Advertisement
To illustrate a handful of these narratives, we tapped photographer Sam Cannon and prop stylist Marissa Herrmann. Together, they created eerie GIFs that show, rather then tell, the visceral feelings that anxiety provokes.
Ahead, 11 descriptions of anxiety, along with accompanying visualizations.
If you are experiencing anxiety and are in need of crisis support, please call theCrisis Call Center’s 24-hour hotline at 1-775-784-8090.
Advertisement
“To me, it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. The worst feeling, where I almost can’t breathe.”
Advertisement
"Anxiety feels like emotions spilling over the edge of a cup, and me trying to grab them with my hands, but failing miserably."
"More than anything, it feels like a painful rock in my stomach that makes it hard to eat and sleep."
Advertisement
"A knife going through my heart."
"At times, it looks and feels like the ocean: waves that aren't too aggressive, but are consistently breaking against the shore, creeping up the sand, retreating, and breaking again. It's so overwhelming because it's a cycle that, in nature, never stops — it just sort of lingers there."
"A butterfly in my ribs."
"It's almost like I'm drowning in a sauna, if that makes sense. It's like a hot, muggy type of suffocation. Like thick soup."
Advertisement
“Being a teenager... wanting to throw up, dizziness, tense, afraid.”
"It's a perpetual electricity running through my chest, scrambling my thoughts into loud static."
"I actually picture a snake swimming really really fast up and down my esophagus, from my throat to the pit of my stomach in figure-eight shapes, over and over again."
Advertisement
"I think anxiety, like most things, is useful to a certain degree. It is a huge motivator. But at some point, it switches from pushing you forward to holding you back. The question is, how do you balance on the right side of that very delicate line?"
By: Rebecca Adams
Support HuffPost
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.
Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.