What You Need To Remember When You Love The Girl With Anxiety
If you are strong enough, and if you are brave enough, you will not see this illness as a flaw, or something to try to erase. You will see it as another reason to love and to adore her. You will see it as something she has, but not something that she is.
You need to remember that above everything else, above the anxiety and the hell that she is going through, that she is strong. Despite the illness that makes her think she is weak. And despite this chemical imbalance in her brain that makes her feel inferior.
You need to remember that although she has this devastating mental illness, that it does not and will not ever define her.
And if you are strong enough, and if you are brave enough, you will not see this illness as a flaw, or something to try to erase. You will see it as another reason to love and to adore her. You will see it as something that she has, but not something that she is.
Anxiety is only a part of her. A part of her outlook on her life. A part of the way she thinks, a part of her anatomy. She cannot get rid of it with the snap of her fingers. She cannot get rid of it, with the tap of her red ruby slippers or with a tube of pills. And even though she wants to, she can’t fully let it go.
And maybe she won’t ever be able to tackle this monster. But please know that this does not make her any less strong of a person than you are. And know that as much as you try and attempt to, you will never understand what it feels like to be in her head.
Remember that although she has worries and has fears, you do not need to hold her hand through life and through every step of the way. She doesn’t need to feel belittled.
Remember that although she shakes and trembles on the outside, her insides are beautiful and strong. Remember that although she voices her fears to you late at night, know that this does not make her any less brave.
In fact, anxiety makes her even braver.
Remember that when you love a girl with anxiety, you are loving someone who has fought more battles that you could never even imagine. Remember that when you love a girl with anxiety, you are loving someone who lives with a monster in her mind.
And remember that when you love a girl with anxiety, you are loving someone who is resilient and mighty enough to fight this monster, with everything that she has.
The girl that you love may not seem so brave to other people. But I hope you see it in her, no matter how many panic attacks in a row she has, and no matter how many times she cries in the middle of the night.
Remember to see her bravery and her fight in everything that she does. No matter the circumstance.
You don’t have to mother her, or protect her from this demon. You just have to stand beside her, knowing that she has it figured out, and knowing that she is capable to deal with this. You just have to stand beside her, supporting her in everything that she does and everything that she says. You just have to stand beside her, immensely proud of the woman that she has become. And immensely proud to call her yours.
When you love the girl with anxiety, know that while you fight the tiny voices in your head that tell you you aren’t good enough, she is fighting an army of those very same voices.
Don’t give up on her. Don’t give up on the fight. And don’t every see her anxiety as something that makes her unlovable.
She appreciates you more than you will ever know.