Dealing with anxiety ---121

One of my biggest fears is asking someone out, as in being in a relationship with them. 

We all have gone through this in our lives. We meet someone that we connect really well, we hit it off and then one thing leads to another and you two are dating. However, everyone can also relate to how much anxiety we all feel when we want to take that first step in asking someone if they want to be a couple with you. Thoughts and outcomes enter your head and you start to wonder whether or not you should go through with it or not. Well, today I am going to tell you a story on how I tried to ask someone to be in a relationship.

This goes back to highschool. At that time, I didn’t really know how to get into a relationship in the first place. My only experience was through movies and to be honest, that wasn’t really a good place to look to. So, I had a lot of anxiety just from even thinking about asking a girl out. This of course manifested when I started to develop feelings for my best friend. At first, it was mainly harmless but over time it began to develop into something else. Since this was my first ever liking someone, of course my anxiety went through the roof. It took me about 3 weeks to be able to get through it. That is because this feeling was completely new to me and I was afraid that if I screwed up I would end up losing my friend. I asked many of my friends that were around at that time on what to do and all of them pretty much said the same thing: to take a deep breath and just be myself. They said that she wouldn’t put me down hard or push me away since we have been friends since elementary school. After all that, my anxiety damped a bit but was still there. Nevertheless, I had to do something or else, like one of my friends said, I’m going to regret it. So, after giving myself a pep talk and with the encouragement from my friends, I finally asked her out at lunch on a Wednesday afternoon, right after school ended. At first, she was a bit shocked, I mean who wouldn’t be if their best friend asked them out, but after about five agonizing minutes of silence, she said yes. And at that moment, all my anxiety evaporated and it was probably one of my happiest memories in my life.

Even though we both broke up after a few years of dating, that task of just asking her and learning how to get my anxiety in control has transferred over to my work ethic. There are times where I get anxiety from work for things like did I do this right or is this the correct way. However, I just have to tell myself that it is ok to ask for help and not try to tackle too many things on my own. Being able to control your anxiety will do wonders for work and your mental health so always remember to take a deep breath and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.