Worrying about birthday

[anxiousalexis]

Hi, I’ve been okay for the past couple of months. I have my moments but nothing to crazy. Since my anxiety has about growing up in August, I’ve been dreading my birthday. Ive been telling myself, oh it’s far away, you’ll be better by then. Now my birthday is this Sunday. I’ll be 19. The normal side of my brain is saying, “Calm down you’re still a teen.” But the anxious part of my brain is saying, “This is your last year as a teenager. You’re gonna be an adult soon. Life is going by fast.” And it just puts a hole in my stomach. I want to enjoy my birthday but it makes me so anxious. I just dont want to be worrying about my birthday and age every year. That’s not fun. How do I get out of this mindset?

[miasouth4]

Hello! I can see where you're coming from and can relate to an extent. It's important to know in these times you're most definitely not alone with this ongoing worry of growing up - I can assure you that 99% of us have all felt the same as it's a stressful and quite terrifying time period of our lives as we soon have to fend for ourselves out in the real world. I don't think anyone of us on this site can inform you how to just "stop" having this mindset, it's more based around you experimenting with different coping mechanisms and altering your mentality to reduce your worries, but I can tell you that you can get to a better place - I'm living proof of that. Sometimes even just talking to others about your worries can assist you - it does for me! But you know, growing up is a good thing if you make it a good thing, and that starts by not letting stress and anxiety take over and preventing you from enjoying yourself. Growing up is inevitable, it’s a natural part of life. We know that. You’re still very young, so why waste a lot of your time worrying about something that you cannot control? You have a whole life to live ahead of you, it is your duty to live it as fully as possible and worrying over something that is out of your control will not do anything but cause an unhealthy mindset and anxiousness to your life. There is no escaping growing up, there’s not much you can actively do to ease the pain and worry besides acceptance, though ironically, the passage of time itself seems to somewhat alleviate the most terrible of feelings. Just accept that what you're worrying about is inevitable, and tell yourself that because of that fact, you're not going to live your life in fear of growing up and instead prove your anxiety wrong and make it a great thing. Not knowing what lays within the unknown can be frightening, but all throughout our lives, so far, we have come face to face with the unknown and have dealt with it. live a little more in the present rather than the future. experiment and find your own ways that you can deal with this worry and reduce it - even if it's only by a little

[anxiousalexis in reply to miasouth4]

Thank you It’s tough but your words did make me feel better

[miasouth4 in reply to anxiousalexis]

I'm glad I could help even if it was just a little! I wish you the best

also, I'm glad Jeff1943 commented because his advice actually would always help me in any situation!

[Jeff1943]

Alexis, so what happens when you're no longer a teenager, do your arms drop off, do you go blind, lose the ability to walk? Exactly, you're just the same as you were the day before, fully equipped to face and conquor the world in mind and body.

Ageing is a very slow process, don't spend your life worrying about the future, live in the present whatever age you find yourself, the future will take care of itself.

[anxiousalexis in reply to Jeff1943]

Lol! You’re right. Anxiety makes you think the worst. Im gonna try to just enjoy the present. Thank you for making me laugh about this. I know I’ll be okay