Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

BoredPanda Add post form topAdd Post Search
Tooltip close

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

How It Feels To Have An Anxiety Disorder Explained In 12 Self Portraits
User submission
38.9K
425.5K

How It Feels To Have An Anxiety Disorder Explained In 12 Self Portraits

ADVERTISEMENT

Photographer Katie Joy Crawford has wrestled with anxiety disorder her entire life, which is why she was especially qualified to create this gripping photo series showing us what it’s like to live with this burden.

“Anxiety bars the sufferer from the risk of discovery, the desire to explore new ideas, and the possibility of exiting a comfort zone,” she writes in the description of her project, ‘My Anxious Heart.’ “It makes sure that it will never be alone. It finds you when you’re in the midst of joy, or alone in your own mind. It is quiet and steady, reminding you of your past failures, and fabricating your future outcomes.”

The project is a deeply personal one for Crawford; “Using my own stories and experiences, I am capturing the raw essence of anxiety. Through this personal journey, I have grown and found that depicting my fears has become therapeutic, as well as a gateway for others to express their oppression and begin their own healing process.”

More info: katiejoycrawford.com | Facebook | Instagram (h/t: huffpost, demilked)

A captive of my own mind. The instigator of my own thoughts. The more I think, the worse it gets. The less I think, the worse it gets. Breathe. Just breathe. Drift. It’ll ease soon.

No matter how much I resist, it’ll always be right here desperate to hold me, cover me, break down with me. Each day I fight it, “you’re not good for me and you never will be”. but there it is waiting for me when I wake up and eager to hold me as I sleep. It takes my breath away. It leaves me speechless.

ADVERTISEMENT

They keep telling me to breathe. I can feel my chest moving up and down. Up and down. Up and down. But why does it feel like I’m suffocating? I hold my hand under my nose, making sure there is air. I still can’t breathe.

ADVERTISEMENT

A glass of water isn’t heavy. It’s almost mindless when you have to pick one up. But what if you couldn’t empty it or set it down? What if you had to support its weight for days… months… years? The weight doesn’t change, but the burden does. At a certain point, you can’t remember how light it used to seem. Sometimes it takes everything in you to pretend it isn’t there. And sometimes, you just have to let it fall.

I was scared of sleeping. I felt the most raw panic in complete darkness. Actually, complete darkness wasn’t scary. It was that little bit of light that would cast a shadow – a terrifying shadow.

ADVERTISEMENT

Numb feeling. How oxymoronic. How fitting. Can you actually feel numb? Or is it the inability to feel? Am I so used to being numb that I’ve equated it to an actual feeling?

My head is filling with helium. Focus is fading. Such a small decision to make. Such an easy question to answer. My mind isn’t letting me. It’s like a thousands circuits are all crossing at once.

ADVERTISEMENT

You were created for me and by me. You were created for my seclusion. You were created by venomous defense. You are made of fear and lies. Fear of unrequited promises and losing trust so seldom given. You’ve been forming my entire life. Stronger and stronger.

Cuts so deep it’s like they’re never going to heal. Pain so real, it’s almost unbearable. I’ve become this… This cut, this wound. All I know is this same pain; sharp breath, empty eyes, shaky hands. If it’s so painful, why let it continue? Unless… Maybe it’s all that you know.

ADVERTISEMENT

I’m afraid to live and I’m afraid to die. What a way to exist.

Depression is when you can’t feel at all. Anxiety is when you feel too much. Having both is a constant war within your own mind. Having both means never winning.

It’s strange – in the pit of your stomach. It’s like when you’re swimming and you want to put your feet down but the water is deeper than you thought. You can’t touch the bottom and your heart skips a beat.

425Kviews

Share on Facebook
You May Like
Popular on Bored Panda
What do you think ?
Add photo comments
POST
marybethely1 avatar
MaryEly
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These images are beautiful, touching, truthful, and haunting. As an artist and photographer who also has been diagnosed as bipolar and suffers from anxiety, too, I find my art and breathing exercises are my soothing tools, my way to cope. I believe great art comes from tortured minds and souls. These images are great art, but I hope their power and truth can hopefully educate those who wonder about this illness and the power it holds over some of those we may know and love.

lise_finkelstein avatar
LiseFinkelstein
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anxiety is so delibitating. You can shake it, and can't control it. It is our brain attacking our sense of well being. And when all is calm again, we can see how ineffective it was to be anxious. But we can't control when it will rise again.

terry_harp3 avatar
TerryHarp
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do disagree with the part about depression. For me, being Bipolar I on the depression side was feeling like I wasn't going to survive the next problem in my life, that everything was moving to fast uphill and I wr asn't able to do anything about it. I cried a lot and frequently for no apparent reason (none outwardly), and found it impossible to get out of bed for, well, about 2 months. But Anxiety is dead-on, too, in her description. It was a very heavy feeling and hard to escape. Beautiful photos, great way to express one's feelings.

Load More Comments
marybethely1 avatar
MaryEly
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These images are beautiful, touching, truthful, and haunting. As an artist and photographer who also has been diagnosed as bipolar and suffers from anxiety, too, I find my art and breathing exercises are my soothing tools, my way to cope. I believe great art comes from tortured minds and souls. These images are great art, but I hope their power and truth can hopefully educate those who wonder about this illness and the power it holds over some of those we may know and love.

lise_finkelstein avatar
LiseFinkelstein
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anxiety is so delibitating. You can shake it, and can't control it. It is our brain attacking our sense of well being. And when all is calm again, we can see how ineffective it was to be anxious. But we can't control when it will rise again.

terry_harp3 avatar
TerryHarp
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do disagree with the part about depression. For me, being Bipolar I on the depression side was feeling like I wasn't going to survive the next problem in my life, that everything was moving to fast uphill and I wr asn't able to do anything about it. I cried a lot and frequently for no apparent reason (none outwardly), and found it impossible to get out of bed for, well, about 2 months. But Anxiety is dead-on, too, in her description. It was a very heavy feeling and hard to escape. Beautiful photos, great way to express one's feelings.

Load More Comments
Popular on Bored Panda
Trending on Bored Panda
Also on Bored Panda