8 Videos That Helped Me Understand Anxiety & Depression

When I was first diagnosed with anxiety & depressive disorders, I felt that no one understood me. Sometimes the best explaining isn't done by yourself, but by someone else. These are the videos that helped me and my friends and family understand it all.

1. LIVING WITH DEPRESSION - CallMeKat

 This videos depicts depression better than anything else and shows depression in the reality.

2.Alone... - superkian13 (Kian Lawley)

 

Kian Lawley does a great job at describing the difference between having anxiety and being afraid. He explains how it feels, and how it took away many years of his life as a teen. He also speaks of how he got help to manage anxiety.

3. What It's Like Living With Depression - BuzzFeedYellow

 

This video wonderfully puts depression into perspective. It nails the voices in your head and how hard it actually is to get rid of depression.

4.What Having Anxiety Feels Like - Meghan Rienks

My favorite part of this video is showing what concealed anxiety looks like.

5. Social Anxiety Disorder: A Devastating Look Inside The Minds of Social Anxiety Disorder Sufferers - Chris Glorioso

 Social anxiety is very hard to understand, but this really opens the mind of a socially anxious person.

6.A Virtual Panic Attack - SoulPancake

This another very well-done video. It describes anxiety simply, yet with the severity of it.

7. Living With A Mental Disorder - BuzzFeedVideo 

I love that this video describes more than one mental illness. The drawings also help.

8. Cuts That Spell - Dickie
 This video just brings a smile to face, oddly. The dancing is beautiful, yet the words are so true and powerful.

 

14 Things I Want My Teachers To Know About My Anxiety

1. I don't get to choose when I have anxiety and when I don't.
Anxiety does not have and on and off switch, even though I wish it did. I am not always in control.

 
2. I know it can be a hassle for you.

 I am fully aware that my anxiety is annoying. I also don't blame you for being annoyed by it.

3. If it is a hassle to you, please try to remember that it is even more of a hassle for me.

Yes, it is annoying and hard to deal with, but remember you have to deal with only what you can see, whereas I deal with what you can't see, which always worse.

4. What helps one day, might not help the next.

 Just because it worked to listen to music yesterday, it doesn't mean that will work today.

5. I don't always know why I am anxious.

 After awhile, there are so many thoughts racing through my head that I don't even know why I am anxious anymore. Sometimes I might have a panic attack for no reason.

6. If I say I'm okay, I'm probably not.

7. When I give up, I am at a very low point.

 There does become a point when I need stop. Please respect it. You don't know the pain that is within me.

8. I am not trying to use my anxiety as an excuse to get out of everything.

Anxiety is not like crutches, it is more like a jail cell. I might have the keys to get out of it, but I might not know how to use them, or might need help using them.

9. I don't know how to ask for help.

 And just because you ask me if I need help, it doesn't mean I'll know what to ask.

10. Yes, I know I am always tired. Don't suggest I should try going to bed earlier. 

 Anxiety affects sleep. Anxiety makes it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep.

11. I have no confidence in myself.

 This makes it hard to do things where I have to suggest my own opinion.

12. I am terrified of being wrong.

Even the simplest question is kicks off anxiety


13. You probably don't understand. So don't tell me you do.

 Anxiety is the type of thing where unless you have been diagnosed or suffered with anxiety 5 days a week for over 6 months, you don't know anxiety. You just don't. It is different than being afraid. It is different from that one time you were really stressed. It is hard to explain.

14. I want to get better. And I am trying. I am always trying, whether you think that or not.