You say,”I can’t really express my experience with my friends and family because they simply cannot understand what it is like to live with dread and fear every day, with anxiety that has no logical or easily explainable root. ” I feel the same way, even trying to explain it to my wife of 37 years, who has stuck with me through thick and thin.

I sometimes wonder if real empathy takes actually experiencing the illogical fear and dread that Anxiety causes. My excellent therapist, who has helped me immensely, cannot empathize with me, only sympathize. He, with 30 years of experience behind him, understands it, but not at a gut level.

One of the reasons for starting this blog was to be able to express what I have learned about Anxiety, how it doesn’t make sense, how it ambushes you, how it hides from explanation, how it actually feels. Maybe something I say will help somebody to understand it better. That’s my hope, anyway.

I have suffered from anxiety and depression my whole life, and I just wanted to give you the feedback that I did not find this article offensive in any way! I agree that humor can ease the way to truth. I emailed this article to myself because I think a spot of humor will be a blessing to me when I’m in the grips of an anxious phase. I appreciate you writing this, as I’ve found anxiety to be very lonely. Beyond my therapist, I can’t really express my experience with my friends and family because they simply cannot understand what it is like to live with dread and fear every day, with anxiety that has no logical or easily explainable root. (Or rather, I can talk a storm about why I’m feeling bad and what I’m scared of at the time, but logic always ultimately fails me. The bottom line is that I’m anxious. My anxious voice will twist all context around me to feed into whatever “reason” I come up with at the time (like #s 22 and 11 above! Hell, like all of them!).

All this to say is that your article rang very true to me, and such a great gift to be able to relate through humor. Thank you!

There are several on the worry list that I recognize in myself, too — and I pride myself in not being a worrier! I think a little more personal humility might be in order.

This article was actually written a couple weeks ago. I debated publishing it because I didn’t want to offend anyone who is having trouble with worry in their lives, whether they are diagnosed with an Anxiety Disorder or not.

But I believe that, many times, humor can point the way to truths that can’t be said in any other way. It was in this spirit that I decided to publish the article.