Labels

Hello Anxiety,

Whether they are sellotaped onto a gift, one of those annoying stickers you can't get off a DVD or a pinned name badge, the word label has seemed to have adopted a far more metaphorical meaning. Now you've got people saying I don't want to be labelled as... such and such or talking about how 'labels' are another form of stereotypes.

So, why am I chatting on about labels? Well, I have been thinking (as one often does) about the words or labels people put on anxiety. When you really think about it, and I mean really think about it. The amount of labels it gets are confusing. For once I'm not talking about 'ignorant' views or people who don't have anxiety. Really it is how all of us choose to describe it differently. 

Some will call it an illness. Perhaps a disorder. Maybe even a disease. While others will explain it as something conditioned. An overly anxious person. A trouble. A problem. Generalised anxiety. Social anxiety. Agoraphobia. Depression. Introverted. The thing is we've probably used all if not most of these words to define this nerve jingling thing. But, really what is it? 

It's all a bit mind boggling. If I say is an illness, does it mean I can be 'cured'. Or perhaps I labelled it as a disease, does that mean I believe that there is no hope of getting better that it is simply something I have 'got'. But, somehow being labelled 'overly anxious' doesn't give us that medical jargon that seems to justify us. So, how do we define ourselves?

That just it. Today I can't seem to get my head around it. However, what I can say is this. We weren't born with this extra anxiety. Anxiety has come from experiences and events that have impacted our life in some way. Then they become bigger and bigger until perhaps we can no longer remember the original reason. So, today I don't forgot my book of answers. However, it is definitely something to think about? How do you define or label anxiety?