I Am Exhausted by How Quickly My Mind Turns Delay Into Danger

Dear Delyara, A delayed reply. A late child. An unanswered call. A changed plan. A message saying, “Can you call me when you can?” The smallest things can become internal emergencies in me before reality has had any chance to explain itself properly. That’s the drain of anxiety. Not only that it creates fear. That it creates unnecessary fear with full physiological commitment. Heart, stomach, breath, thought, all arriving at the wrong conclusion together before evidence catches up. By the time the truth turns out to be smaller, the body has already paid. That’s what makes it so expensive. I keep paying emotional interest on possibilities that never fully materialise. And some days, I am furious that my mind feels like such an unsafe waiting room.