Anxiety
Anxiety doesn’t always look like panic attacks.
Sometimes it looks like always being on edge.Overthinking every decision.Feeling exhausted before the day even starts.
I’ve lived with that for most of my life — long before I even knew the word anxiety existed.
What still blows my mind is that I didn’t have this explained to me until I was in my 20s.
Not by my family.Not at school.Not by anyone who was supposed to help me understand what was happening inside my own mind.
Looking back, that silence did more damage than the anxiety itself.
Because when you don’t have language for what you’re experiencing, you don’t seek understanding — you seek coping. You assume something is wrong with you. You normalize stress, tension, and emotional shutdown because you think that’s just “how life is.”
Now, almost 40, I still see the same pattern playing out.
Mental health gets talked about just enough to justify a prescription — but not enough to build real understanding.Not enough to teach people how their mind actually works.Not enough to give them tools before things spiral.
And especially for men, these conversations often never happen at all.
We’re taught to push through. To keep it moving. To ignore what’s going on internally until it shows up as burnout, anger, isolation, or self-destructive habits.
Anxiety isn’t a personal failure. It isn’t weakness.And it isn’t something you’re supposed to just “tough out.”
It’s a signal.
A signal that your nervous system has been living in survival mode for too long.A signal that something inside you has never been given space, understanding, or direction.
I’m sharing this because I know I’m not the only one who grew up without these conversations.And I know there are men carrying this quietly, thinking they’re alone in it.
You’re not.
And the more we talk about this honestly — without labels, shame, or pretending it doesn’t exist — the less power it has over us.
If this resonates, you don’t need to fix anything today.Just start by acknowledging it.
Awareness is where real change actually begins.
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Anxiety
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