Mike

TRANSIENCE

[noun]

the state or quality of being transient; lasting for a short time; temporary; ephemeral; not lasting, not enduring; impermanent.

This is a shoutout to anyone else out there who struggles with anxiety that’s invisible a lot of the time.

Maybe your symptoms are mostly the hidden kind: racing heartbeat; intrusive, self-deprecating thoughts; sudden bouts of nausea or dizziness; numbness and tingling in your fingers or your lips or your face.

Or maybe you’ve gotten really good at coping. Maybe you’ve been to counseling, or practiced your strategies for years. Maybe you’ve learned to pay attention to those first signs of nausea, or tingling, or sensory overload. Maybe you’ve learned how to arrange your life around your symptoms. 

Maybe you can make it to the bathroom before you dissolve into tears. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a partner who knows what to do when you say I need to get out of here, right now. 

I don’t know that I ever made a conscious choice to try to hide my anxiety. It happened out of necessity. I wanted a career, and a stable relationship, and friends who’d take the time to get to know me before judging me based on my most vulnerable moments. So for anyone else out there who’s gotten really good at hiding, I just wanted to tell you:

Your suffering is real.

‘Coping’ doesn’t mean ‘cured.’

You deserve to feel accomplished for using your strategies and getting yourself through the day.

You deserve to feel proud, even if no one knows what you’re going through.