this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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me_irl
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I don’t get anxiety. The fuck you’re scared of? You just wake up and be scared? Of what?
I just don’t get it.
I get it that you’re scared when driving a car, because everyone sucks at driving except me.
But how could one be anxious all the time? Could one please explain like I‘m mentally handicapped?
It's a low level scared. Like being a sentry in watch through the night. You're used to it. It's not like the alarms are blaring and you don't know where the problem is, but there is always that nagging feeling that something is going to happen to break the safety any second.
You go to work. The boss makes sure you feel like you are barely scraping by on your performance. You are coming in early to make sure you clock in at the exact second requested. God forbid a traffic jam causes you to be a minute late. You give your best all day at work and go home a zombie at night, but hey you kept your job and health insurance another day. Sure hope the car doesn't break. You can't afford a repair bill right now. Speaking of bills, you just heard that your rent will be increasing in a few months. It's basically extortion at this point, but you can't afford anywhere else either. Where will you get extra money in a few months? Oh well. That's a problem for a few months from now. Maybe you can be an Uber driver or something. Well, not with your worn down car. Maybe instacart deliveries.
It's basically like that. Everyone is on the edge wondering what mild breeze will be the one that pushes them over.
This is what is alien to me. My parents live like that as well and my take is just "I’ve lived through so many shitty things I wasn’t prepared for" I live carefree (could be naive or dumb) but I do have backup plans going as deep as having written guides on how to hunt and prepare game with household items.
And that job situation… I never gave it my all to begin with. I have so many hobbies of which only one is expensive which I look forward to after work that I just don’t want to give it my all and never did.
You can’t change if something happens, when it happens or how it happens, and I don’t know how anyone could waste time on something they can’t change.
Are you joking around or do you want a serious answer?
Actually yes. This might be classified as a boomer mindset or something like that. But how can anyone be scared all the time? I get depression, but anxiety? Alien.
Imagine any time you've felt a worry or fear of something, but imagine it's being said by another person. They will not shut up. You have to listen to them. You know they're wrong, logically, but they're very convincing and keep going on. I mean, they're not wrong. While unlikely, the car next to you COULD suddenly swerve and hit you. It's not impossible. They're getting louder. They will not shut up. They get louder again. They will still not shut up. They drown out every sound. You can't hear anything else but how this terrible bad thing is going to happen.