Author Archives: anxietyblob

One of the biggest challenges of living with anxiety is figuring out how to re-enter the world after you’ve been in retreat mode. You know that feeling, say, when you’ve cut class so many times it’s just easier to keep on not going? Because showing up involves too many possible horrific situations, like people askingContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Jumping Back In”

If you have anxiety, you are familiar with a pattern of behavior known as avoidance. Avoidance means changing your actions in order to avoid experiencing anxiety or panic. It means you convince yourself if you just don’t do that, you will be safe. Presumably from flesh-eating zombies, searing humiliation, uncomfortable conflicts, and/or embarrassingly copious boutsContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Avoiding Avoidance”

Everyone has difficulty concentrating now and again, just as everyone experiences anxiety. What, then, makes the inability to concentrate that results from anxiety disorder different? Are anxiety-sufferers really having that much trouble? In a word: yes. If you are an Anxiety Blob who finds it hard to focus because of racing thoughts, you are notContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Inability to Concentrate”

One of the hardest things to understand about anxiety disorder is that it causes the sufferer to isolate. That isolation is both a symptom and a side effect of anxiety. Anxiety Blobs may crave social interaction, but often the thought of being around other people, even people we love, can be daunting. Anxiety tells usContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: “My Computer Friends””

When it comes to anxiety and insomnia it can be a bit of a “which came first, the chicken or the egg” scenario. Studies show that nearly all psychiatric disorders include some degree of sleep disruption, and lack of sleep can greatly exacerbate any existing issues. Anxiety keeps you up at night, which in turnContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Insomnia is Fun”

Many people don’t realize that social anxiety is an actual mental health diagnosis. It goes far beyond simply feeling anxious in certain social situations, which everyone experiences from time to time. Social Anxiety Disorder is a chronic condition, diagnosed by a professional, in which the patient experiences irrational fear regarding social interactions, especially in instancesContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Adventures in Social Anxiety”

Fun fact: the symptoms of anxiety and depression often overlap. Both disorders have different causes and emotional roots, but it is not uncommon for a person who suffers from one to also experience the other. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, some shared symptoms of both anxiety and depression are: agitation dysphoriaContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: A Visit from the Depression Cloud”

Many Anxiety Blobs with social anxiety have a specific fear of phone calls. Not phones. Not texting. But actually answering the phone. Or picking it up to call someone. Personally, I find that it has to do with 1) an unscripted interaction (I have no idea why this person is calling or who they are),Continue reading “Anxiety Blog: Phone Call Phobia”

Within the Anxiety Blob portion of the population, you will find a fair number of introverts. It’s tempting to conflate social anxiety with introversion, but that would be a mistake. Social anxiety is the fear of being perceived (and judged) negatively by others to the extent that it affects your interactions with other people andContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Introvert Alert”

Did you know that Sweatpants & Coffee’s beloved mental health mascot, the Anxiety Blob, is kind of a big deal on social media? Go to Instagram and search the #anxietyblob  hashtag or the official @therealanxietyblob account and you’ll find Anxiety Blobs having all sorts of blobventures – a great reminder that anxiety is a condition you can manageContinue reading “Anxiety Blog: Blobs Drinking Coffee”