Hi Coko,

One day in a group support meeting, one of the members was having extreme anxiety and she expressed that she thought she looked like she was coming apart and everyone who looked at her could tell she was coming apart. So the therapist asked all of us to comment on how she appeared. Every single one of us told her that she looked fine, she didn't look nervous or anxious, she sounded competent, no one could tell she felt "crazy" or anything like that, and we were not judging her that way.

Sometimes, when we are feeling anxious, we think people know exactly how we are feeling. But the truth is, we really don't LOOK that way so how would they know? I used to have panic attacks and severe anxiety. It took me a very long time to understand this. But eventually I did understand it and then it got easier for me to not worry about what other people thought.

Just try to remember that how you feel is not necessarily how you look.