It Swells
My chest tightens, struggling to expand as my lungs labor to fill themselves with air in a consistent manner. My eyelids flutter, never fully closing as the tears well behind them. The world spins, darkens as it seems to close in around me. My ears fill with the deafening sound of silence as the shroud of nothingness covers me. I spiral, and the anxiety swells like a typhoon quickly overcoming a shore. Managing my anxiety has been a battle I have fought since I was able to name it, able to attribute the sinking feeling I often carried around with me. At times, it feels as if a pinball is bouncing off my ribcage - tinkling from one side to the other and then back again. Other times, it feels like the above; a mind-numbing, suffocating experience. Any given day is a grab bag - will I wake up with a feeling of doom and dread; will I feel OK and then something disturb my peace; will I feel OK all day and never have a worry in the world? Reasonably, any of these options are real ... ex...