Anxiety Punched Me In The Gut At 4:30am
The Reality of Dealing with Chronic Anxiety
The funny thing about dealing with an ongoing mental illness is that sometimes it almost goes away for a little while. I say “almost,” because even on a good day, there’s still some kind of battle going on inside of my mind. Those better days can also go through longer stretches. And just when you start to “relax,” anxiety will hit you out of nowhere.
That’s what happened to me at 4:30am on Monday morning.
Early Monday morning, I sleepily walked back to bed from the bathroom.
I checked the time. Technically, it was 4:34am.
I sighed with relief. I still had a couple of hours before I had to wake up. I felt so tired.
I laid my head down. When all of the sudden, flashes of things I worry about went through my mind. I couldn’t make it stop. With the random images flooding my mind, the doomsday thoughts started pouring in.
Then came the rock in my stomach. It’s like extreme tension all stored in a tight ball that just sits in my stomach. I refer…