What Happens When Your Anxiety Tethers You To The House

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When your anxiety keeps you tethered to the house, you worry you’re missing out on something. You worry you’re wasting away your youth. You worry you’re slowly losing your friends, your family, and your sanity.

When your anxiety tethers you to your house, you tend to overthink. You have a lot of time alone, which means you have a lot of time for your thoughts to run wild. You start thinking of all of the things you should have accomplished, all of the ways you disappointed yourself, all of the things you should be doing instead of sitting there feeling sorry for yourself.

When your anxiety tethers you to the house, every single day becomes a repeat of the last. There isn’t much variety to your routine. In a way, that’s comforting. But at the same time, it’s excruciatingly boring. The days blend together. The weeks blend together. The months blend together. You never have anything more exciting to look forward to than a nice breakfast or cup of coffee. You know exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow because it’s the same as what’s happened yesterday.

When your anxiety tethers you to the house, you dwell on little things for much longer than you should. If you stumble over your words during a phone call with your hairdresser, you wont be able to stop thinking about it. It was one of your only social interactions that week, so it feels like a much bigger deal to you than to them. They’ll forget about your phone call in five minutes, but you’ll linger on it for hours.

When your anxiety keeps you tethered to the house, it creates distance between you and the people you consider your closest friends. You might think texting someone is a big deal — but your friends might not feel that close to you if you never see each other in person. They might expect more from you. They might feel like you don’t care about them when you turn down the chance to see them, when you stay cooped up in your house instead of meeting up with them.

When your anxiety keeps you tethered to the house, you become starved for social interaction. Even if you normally try your hardest to avoid group situations and crowded public places, you’ll want to be around people again. You’ll wish you had someone you could talk to, someone who could take away your loneliness.

When your anxiety tethers you to the house, social media becomes your main source of interaction — but it’s also painful to look at. It’s painful to see other people your age roaming the world, enjoying their life. It’s painful to know you shouldn’t be living the way you are right now. It’s painful to know you need to make a change sometime soon.

When your anxiety keeps you tethered to the house, you start feeling less and less comfortable there. Your house starts to feel confining. It starts to feel like a prison you want to escape but are scared to escape.