Social Anxiety

When you feel like everyone around you is staring at you,

Talking about you,

Making fun of you.

When you think all hope is lost,

It's not depression.

In some ways it's worse.

Depression is a side effect of anxiety.

It's hard to make friends,

To show who you are.

The thought of talking to a class

or a group of people;

You'd rather kill yourself.

You've thought about it.

Taking that last step of life.

You haven't done it yet,

Too afraid of what people will think.

Too afraid of being 'attention seeking'.

High school students of this generation

Reported to have higher levels of anxiety than people institutionalised in the 1950s.

Tell me now that "you're just shy"

Tell me now that "you'll grow out of it"

Tell me now that "you're being dramatic"

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for having anxiety.

I'm sorry for crying myself to sleep over opinions of people that shouldn't matter to me.

I'm sorry.

Anxiety is not a choice.

It's a side effect of dying.

We're dying.