College Entrance Essay - Anxiety

Submitted By stephaniejoan17
Words: 569
Pages: 3

For the past year I've had the type of anxiety that crawls up your throat, pummels you in the chest and leaves you breathless. And if you knew me, you’d think I was lying. Most of my life I’ve been an outgoing, happy, and bubbly person. I would get a rush from doing spontaneous things with my friends, and being the funny and loud one in the group. But of course, high school came and changed everything. My classmates started drifting away. The people I had known since grade school, the people I had called my second family for years, changed overnight. Some went into sports, others pursued band, or joined the drill team. A lot of them developed bad habits that I refused to be a part of. And when second semester of freshman year started, matters only got worse. I met an upperclassman that swept me off my feet, and suddenly my closest friends and I started arguing. Jealousy flew in every direction, negative comments were spread through school and the internet, thus giving birth to anxiety. It might seem silly, how severely drama affected me. But when your old life turns against you, and you’re left completely alone and isolated from the people you thought would always be there, it takes a toll on your wellbeing. That year I ended up with a completely different life. Sophomore year is when it hit really bad. Although my boyfriend and I were happy and in love the panic attacks started developing. I became extremely distraught by having to go back to the place that brought me so much misery. That October, I was admitted into the emergency room. The chest pains had become so bad, the doctors inserted an IV in my vein to stop it. They conducted series of tests and took x-rays to make sure my heart was well. The doctors came to the conclusion, that in fact I had chronic anxiety. I was given medication and my family overwhelmed me with worry. That was also the day I decided it had gone too far. I became determined not, to let anxiety take over my life. I focused on the good, my family, my