I exhaust myself preparing for things that don’t happen

Dear Delyara, The worst part of anxiety, for me, is not always the visible moment. It is the rehearsal beforehand. I prepare for conversations that never happen, rejection that never comes, embarrassment that never arrives, conflict that stays entirely imaginary. By the time the real day unfolds, I’m already tired from all the false versions I survived first. That is why anxiety feels so invisible from the outside. People see one message answered, one meeting attended, one ordinary interaction. They don’t see the twenty emotionally expensive ghost versions that preceded it. It’s hard not to resent how much of my energy goes there.