Hello!

[ethereal.perennial]

My name is Jane and I'm 24, living in a small town in California. I recently went back to school as a Forestry major and have been working at a local grocery store for about four years. I've had anxiety for basically my entire life and I thought I would reach out to a community online to make some sense of things I experience.

Most of it is social anxiety, but it's pretty general and while not technically severe, it does end up really affecting my sense of identity/self-worth and my sense of time to the point where I can not think clearly. I feel as if it used to be much worse when I was younger -- my emotions were not very stable and I didn't understand why I felt the way that I did. If anything, most of my progress comes from practicing mindfulness and expressing gratitude frequently. I love nature as well and it always helps to remind me to slow down, even if I can't. I try to create things as much as possible because it keeps my mind busy--this could be anything from art to home crafting to lists. I'm very fortunate that these things are able to help me despite the fact that it does not help entirely. But I suppose I'm just here to get extra help in some form. I'm really looking forward to becoming involved

 

[He Man]

Jane, hi..

I'm new to the forum also, and relatively new to the anxiety experience..
Looking forward to your posts. Peace

 

[triceps]

Hi Jane,

Sorry you have to deal with anxiety. This forum has been very helpful to me in many aspects. Hope it does the same for you.