#anxious nerd

"Come come, you can't just wallow in here all day~"

“....But it’s comfy”

Anxiety Nerds

Content note: discussion of anxiety.

I am a nerd, and I suffer from anxiety. I haven’t been diagnosed (yay for prohibitive cost of health care in America!) and don’t really have any therapy or anything. Just an anxious nerd. And today I’m talking about it.

On the positive side, a lot of my nerdy pursuits can help me feel less anxious. Reading, writing, watching mystery shows or anime, playing video games, studying a foreign language, listening to music, or making art all can help me calm down when I’m panicking or overwhelmed. A lot of nerdy pursuits can be solitary, which is good when I need time alone to feel calmer.

But there are some things about being a nerd that can exacerbate my anxiety during difficult times. For one thing, a lot of nerdy media contains graphic violence or other content that can make me more anxious, not less. This has been really frustrating for me particularly. And personally, I sometimes find sexism in media—a still chronic problem in a lot of nerdy stuff—to be even more problematic when I’m feeling extra anxious. Planning nerdy social activities or hanging out with people is sometimes totally out of the question, and sometimes hard to explain too (shout out to awesome friends who totally understand).

But, good and bad, my nerdy identity and the nerd community is a big and positive part of my life, including dealing with the anxiety. And me, I am motivated to try to make nerd world a more positive and uplifting place for struggling nerds like me. Because that's what a community founded by outcasts should be all about.

Any other anxious nerds out there? What do you do to cope with it? Any tips or suggestions? All the love to my fellow nerds, especially if you have to deal with this too.

Patience Virtue