I anticipate disaster in ordinary moments

Dear Delyara, That is what anxiety feels like for me most days — not panic, but anticipation. I anticipate disaster before breakfast. Conflict before a conversation. Rejection before a reply. Failure before an attempt. Embarrassment before entering a room. Bad news before checking my phone. Some hidden problem before anything visible has even gone wrong. It is exhausting to live this alert inside a mostly ordinary life. People say “try not to overthink” like it is a habit I can remove manually, but overthinking is often just the mind’s attempt to get ahead of fear before fear gets ahead of me. The problem is, it never really works.