EASY ON ME

/public dilemma.

Written by. Oliver Schofield

“I have a public story on how I handle my anxiety and it’s from a spectrum point of view, a number of different things if you’d like to read it."

I opened up about my panic attacks back in June 2018, the experience left me with a spinning head a feeling of chalk in my mouth and trouble breathing because the air felt thick and heavy.

“everyone is going through something that we can’t see, mental health is an invisible thing but it touches all of us at some point or another."

Addressing why I decided to speak publicly on the issue partly, I want to do it for me but mostly I want to do it because people don’t talk about mental health enough and men and boys are probably the farthest behind.

“Staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic has upsides, like more quality time with family but the downsides can aggressively impact daily life from finances to mental health.”

I can relate to the anxiety that a lot of people are feeling right now, as I have dealt with and spoken openly about my experiences with mental health issues.

How the unknowns we're all experiencing right now are making people "even more anxious, they don't know when they're going to work again and how this is going to change us coming out of this."

To those with anxiety:

• how do you handle the situation when you have an anxiety attack in public?
• does anyone have any time how to handle anxiety when at work or out in public?
• how do y’all handle anxiety attacks in public?
• how to handle performance anxiety according to professional public speakers?

I wonder how public figures like ‘Owen Wilson’ can handle pressure and anxiety?

I don't know how people can handle being proposed to in public, I would get a massive case of anxiety because I hate being put on the spot or centre of attention. Privately please!

In your own personal experience, 'how do you handle public anxiety?' — I've always been quite introverted myself but I get nervous around new people quite often, some days it's easier but some days I just don't want to deal with anyone but I feel as if I need to get through this in

Order to actually be able to help certain people because that's definitely something that I want to do, just be a positive influence and brighten someone's day but that's hard when you don't really wish to go outside.

For me it’s knowing when to say “okay, enough is enough." — I personally have been slowly expanding my comfort zone when it comes to social situations, but I never excessively stress myself out or induce any sort of panic response.

I tried making a video for my son birthday vacation but yikes my anxiety can’t handle filming in public, q’s is 'how do youtubers do it, i’ll see how the rest of this trip goes and i’ll try to salvage the footage lol.'

The massive anxiety I get before I go out into public is the worst and it’s every time, you would think at age 43 I would know how to handle this shit by now.

I've learned and I tried how to handle my anxiety, I have it down to the science when I’m home. I created my home sanctuary and it’s so peaceful but I’m still trying to master how to handle it in public.

Anxiety isn’t nice but learning how to handle them in public is so much more horrible, but hey I got to do it I’ve started with no control over to learning how to control them. I avoid everything because of them when people say it’s like the devil and the angel it’s true

The devil is the anxiety and the angel is you trying to see the good in it but two weeks in and I’m completely broken from it I’ve had a low week but you can only go up from it I wonder what the next 10/12 weeks are gonna be like.

People who don’t have anxiety don’t understand it’s the recovery that comes after an anxiety attack it literally drains you.

You sleep more it sometimes takes days to recover from one attack I had a bad one in therapy on Wednesday last week and slept all Sunday but between Wednesday and Sunday, I couldn’t properly shut off or rest now almost a week later I’m just starting to feel human again it’s thing like that people with a mental illness kinda hide I always have but it’s understand it’s okay to be honest about it.

1. How do we handle anxiety of everything going back to normal even though it’s actually not safe?
2. How do we handle the reality that social distancing may not happen in public transport and that there is a high risk of catching covid 19?

Yes it’s good to be informed and alert but if that 'stay alert' slogan makes us all anxious, confused and angry how to we cope?

I keep opening up Twitter to tweet something, looking for that sweet dopamine hit of human connection but then I get paralyzed by anxiety over how simultaneously public and personal this handle is. So, I just Like a bunch of crap and close the app again.

Twitter has decided to address this dilemma by giving their app an algorithm to shove the crap I like into your feed as if I had retweeted it and the cycle continues.

Being in public just gives me big anxiety now I wonder how our country will handle the topic of its many traumatized citizens post-pandemic, I bet super well and at all. I have this anxiety which is sometimes low-grade and sometimes is full-on panic attacks.

It definitely affects how much I think I'll be able to handle when it comes to public criticism and whether I'll ever be able to publish at all

Some peoples anxiety is probably far stronger than mine and they may not be able to handle the attacks when they happen, I just know when I'm in public — what's going on in my mind is completely different than how I'm acting on the outside.

Yeah I am the exact same way, but then I realised it’s actually a strength especially in this day and age where your breakdowns are broadcasted across the globe. I am glad I can fight my demons in private, ya know? — ‘No judgements from strangers.’

It's my fight, not to mention even trying to explain what's going on in my head is near impossible and proves to be more difficult than just pretending everything is fine.

I got diagnosed with panic and anxiety disorder and I feel this so fucking hard and if you’re ever looking for a anxiety buddy, I got you!