This article was first published on ThinkInt website.

Photo by Joice Kelly from Unsplash

The story reflects a real person’s experience, but her name is removed to protect her identity.

She sat on the bed, switching on the movie “Bad Boys 2” at 1am after she failed to reach her boyfriend’s phone. While watching the first 10 minutes, her mind starts to wander. She has racing thoughts and questions about her boyfriend.

“Why is he ignoring me? Did I do something wrong?”

She feels anxious after she finds out from her friend that her boyfriend is cheating on her with another woman. She also found out that he has blocked her from seeing his selected Facebook posts that he published publicly. Everyone can see his newfound romantic partner, except her.

At that moment of worrying, her heart beat faster than usual and she experienced shortness of breath. She thought she could watch a comedy to calm herself but she couldn’t. Throughout the early morning, she felt restless, nervous, and perspired even in a well-air-conditioned room. She did not sleep well. She was experiencing anxiety symptoms for the first time but she did not know.

Anxiety: Friend or Foe?

Experiencing anxiety can be uncomfortable but it is not necessarily dangerous.

In moderation, anxiety can help us deal with stressors in our lives via the fight-or-flight (sometimes freeze) response; it’s a natural reaction when our brain senses threat in our environment.

For instance, when she experienced anxiety due to issues in her romantic relationship for the first time, she did not isolate herself. Instead, it was natural for her to seek comfort from her immediate family and friends. However, her experience with anxiety became worse after the breakup.

How do we know that our anxiety is getting worse?

Anxiety gets worse especially when:

• All the symptoms of anxiety are intensified
• You have excessive worries and its intensity is significantly more in comparison to the actual threat
• It affects your daily functions
• It interferes with your life’s goals
• It cannot be explained by other factors such as a medical problem or substance abuse

At that time, she experienced all the above along with symptoms of depression. However, no one in her family including herself recognized her mental health issues; instead, they viewed these difficult feelings as a phase that would go away. Unfortunately, she felt stuck with these mental health issues for years. Eventually, she came to acknowledge she has anxiety and depression and she needs to get proper help.

Need someone to talk to about what you’re going through? Have you been feeling out of sync lately? Or have concerns that you need to address? YTL Construction cares about your mental health and offers counselling sessions for free.

We engage ThinkInt Malaysia and their team of certified counsellors to conduct counselling sessions. All sessions are fully anonymous, and bookings can be made directly with the counsellors.