Hi everybody!

This week on the Midweek Muse the theme is:  ANXIETY

Can anyone relate to this theme?  I know I can!  Deborah Gray just wrote about anxiety in her post today.  And I just started writing for the anxiety site.  You can read my first ever post, "Writing about Anxiety: A Personal Perspective."   So please do come on over and join the site as I know so many of you suffer from anxiety as well as depression. 

I can tell you that I have experienced anxiety in my life just as long as I have had depression.  The two seem to go hand in hand.  And I am not sure which feeling is worse.  For some reason it is more difficult for me to talk about my anxiety.  Growing up in the inner city, it is something you learn to hide.  You don't want to appear vulnerable or frightened.  But I can tell you that I was each and every day!

Anxiety and stress cause a vicious cycle usually resulting in depression for me.  So it is a good strategy to decrease the anxiety and stress to prevent the depression from starting.

Here are some interesting quotes about anxiety:

When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past. ~Author Unknown

I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time. ~Charles Schulz

If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~E. Joseph Cossman

You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. ~Pat Schroeder

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. ~Thomas A. Edison

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. ~Don Herold

So let's get creative with this topic. 

Here is my little stream of consciousness writing about anxiety:

My experiences with anxiety began early on.  Let's face it, life is full of frightful things.  Like for example, Mrs. Rosiac, my first grade teacher.  Mrs. Rosiac was a big woman who wore loud flower print dresses.  And she was mean as a viper.  I have always been shy but given the courage of my convictions, I will speak my mind.  One day Mrs. Rosiac gave us all crayons and paper and told us to draw a picture of the outdoors.  I drew my picture complete with white sky.  As is common in northeast cities, the days are usually overcast with cloud cover.  Mrs. Rosiac was a stickler for blue skies evidently and told me to color in my sky with the appropriate color.  When I refused she scowled and asked me why I would not do what she ordered.  I grabbed her hand and led her to the window.  I showed her the cloudy sky and said, "The sky is not blue today."  Well this didn't sit well with Mrs. Rosiac who then proclaimed that I did not know my colors.