Are you one of the many women in perpetual need of a chill pill? Don’t worry — I feel you. Being “the anxious one” in your friend group isn’t fun, but you’re not alone! Here are some nagging thoughts that plague anxious women pretty much only a daily basis:
- “Is he going to text me back?” Alternately, “Crap, should I have sent that text?” If you suffer from anxiety, the last thing you need is a cell phone, honestly. It’s just too much sometimes. You’re so connected that it’s hard to disconnect. Time to just send a text and let it be.
- “Is every one else doing better than I am?”Full disclosure: I ask myself this question every single time I log into Facebook and scan the newsfeed. Then I have to remind myself that people only post their successes on Facebook, not their failures, and that even if every one else is doing better than I am, life is not a competition.
- “Am I going to be late?”And I don’t mean late in a period sort of way (though that’s definitely something to be anxious about, too), I mean late as in, “I’d better leave an hour and a half early” sort of late. Which leads us to another anxious thought: “Am I going to be the first one there?” Seems like we can never win.
- “Can everyone tell I gained weight?” I’ve actually avoided meeting up with old friends for fear they’d judge me about the weight I’d gained — and it probably wasn’t even a noticeable weight gain to begin with! Don’t do this. Your real friends love you and don’t care if you’ve gained weight.
- “What the hell am I supposed to wear?”I appreciate that women have so many options for fashion, but sometimes, it feels like just way too many. I kind of miss the days when I wore a school uniform. It was so much easier.
- “Does everyone think I’m ‘crazy’?” Ugh — there’s nothing worse than being slapped with the “crazy” label, and it seems like when you’re a woman, it’s way too easy for this to happen. When you’re a woman who suffers from anxiety, you feel even more anxious worrying that people think you’re crazy. The best thing to do is take a deep breath, focus on yourself, and block out the rest.
- “Maybe I should reread that email I sent six more times.”It can be really hard to just let things lie. Even if an email is sent and done with, we still feel like we can control the outcome it will have by rereading what we wrote a few times. Nope.
- “Is everyone hanging out without me?”Mindy Kaling nailed this one. But it’s more than just a book title — it’s a real concern. Time to stop checking Facebook and Instagram!
- “What if this doesn’t work out?”The “this” in question can stand for many things: a relationship, a job opportunity, whatever. The “this” is what keeps us up at night. Screw “this”!
