I hear threat in things that are probably neutral

Dear Delyara, That’s what anxiety does to the room for me. A message sounds colder. A pause sounds loaded. A face looks slightly different and my body assumes something has changed. A delay feels like proof. A quiet shift becomes a story. I know that not every small thing means danger. But anxiety doesn’t care much about what I know in theory. It cares about what feels likely in the body. And in the body, so much still feels like maybe something is wrong. That is exhausting.