When I was a kid I dealt with a lot of anxiety. I didn’t know where it came from. I would wake up from a vivid dream. I would start to hyperventilate. I would run to the bathroom and vomit, eventually passing out. I was so embarrassed that I didn’t want to wake my parents. It would happen so often that I would put a trash can next to my bed. I got good at hiding it. After finding me on the bathroom floor passed out one night, my mother took me to the doctor and they said that I had food poisoning. It kept happening and I kept trying to hide it because I thought I had done something wrong. I didn’t want my parents to be angry with me. It wasn’t until I got into my twenties that a doctor said “anxiety attack”. I’d never heard of it. No one talked about it. My church found out and prayed over me and told me to stop watching tv. 😂 Yeah. I’m in a much healthier place and haven’t dealt with that type of anxiety in a long time. I believe that’s attributed to looking for answers and applying them. It’s not always that easy. I never take how far I’ve come for granted. Anxiety can always pop up at anytime in so many different ways. There’s no cure that I know of. Just tools. Because I’ve battled with this before, over time I’ve learned not to take things so personally because you never know what ppl are dealing with. It’s not easy. We are by nature wired to react and defend. It’s a choice. Choose to understand. Choose to be compassionate. Breathe with them. It’ll mean more than you know.