Talk:Book 7: Flashback/@comment-2606:A000:1128:4169:E5C3:7AC1:7C93:F4A9-20181214023703/@comment-34064772-20181216182421

I see a lot of people have mentioned their experiences with social anxiety, but I have a lot of generalised anxiety, and I think that’s closer to your character

To put it simply, it’s an omnipresent doubt. If you don’t have it, you may think: can’t you just stop think about it? However, you can’t. It’s kind of like an itch. If you scratch it [think about what’s making you anxious], you’ll feel better for  a minute, maybe two, or five, but it will come back, generally stronger. Obviously, if you’re writing the book from the anxious character’s perspective, you probably shouldn’t  mention it at every second. Think of it as a buzz in the background. Mention things like not being able to focus because they’re distracted or lost in thought. One of the big things that can make your character act “normal” and not doubt themselves would be what I like to call the Mom Friend Override™. Your character wants something? Too bad. Uber nervous, can hardly function. Close friend/someone they care about wants something? They will immediately do that thing for them without a second thought. However, the moment you give them a quiet time to think, they will think of it. That’s another thing. When they’re trying to fall asleep, they will more often than not stay awake thinking about  all their supposedly embarrassing or uncomfortable moments. From these cone anxiety dreams. Basically just nightmares based on things that have caused them anxiety.

I haven’t mentioned them much, but there are also irrational feelings of anxiety that happen. Instead of your usual, what if someone thinks I’m weird for doing ______? Or what if I trip and spill everything?, there are the weird tangents that happen. So it’s like you do one thing and you start to draw extraneous conclusions about why your life is now completely over.

These are are just some general things I could think of. I also have some other things(namely add and ocd) so I hope these are accurate to anxiety, but they’re kind of hard to separate. If this helped, feel free to ask more questions.