Anxiety and Pressure

I love this website as it lets me vent and share my story with others. As a kid I had so many friends and had a great life. But I was always a little nervous about unnecessary things like having a heart attack or watching my family get eaten by sharks. This worry would cause me to throw up as a kid so it sucked. I even got through the unnecessary worry and started worrying about throwing up, so I would throw up. Then I grew out of that and it changed. I became a star athlete in my town and was known and loved by a lot of people. I also loved a lot of people, but being a star athlete put and inordinate amount of “pressure” on me. This of course was self induced pressure but still pressure nonetheless. This pressure caused me to only think about sports and it caused worry throughout my day. It changed the game for me and made it miserable to play. It wasn’t until down the road that I realized it was anxiety and I was just wired in a way that raised my senses to any uncomfort. I have gotten through this by practicing mindfulness and understanding that I am wired this way. As humans, we are so smart that sometimes our intellect tries to protect us from minor things. I see it as a strength now as I am more aware to things than most people.