Anxiety and Suicidal Ideation



Written by a young adult guest blogger who wishes to write anonymously

Anxiety is a feeling that everyone experiences, even without a diagnosis. Because anxiety is so common, it’s often dismissed as a ‘less serious’ mental health condition. Many people have trouble understanding how debilitating anxiety can be and how closely related it can become to suicidality. When people think about the warning signs for suicide, depression is always the number one factor. What people don’t talk about enough is how anxiety can push someone toward suicide. For me, untreated anxiety was a driving force behind my suicidal thinking.

I experienced extreme anxiety as early as elementary school, often in the form of panic attacks that left me overwhelmed and inconsolable. I was lucky to get a therapist early on and begin anxiety medication that helped me tremendously. As I got older, I stopped taking the medication, but my anxiety didn’t disappear; it just changed. However, because it manifested so differently, I didn’t recognize that I was still struggling. 

In middle school, I learned that even small amounts of stress would send my nervous system into overdrive. My brain just couldn’t handle any additional stress. I now say it feels like your brain is on fire. It felt like my brain was a computer with too many tabs open, overheating, slowing down, and eventually shutting down completely. At the time, I didn’t know this was abnormal. I just assumed this was something everyone dealt with. That assumption kept me from realizing I needed help...

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