Living With Anxiety & Addiction: A Memoir of Self-Acceptance

Introduction

In the article Through my eyes; living with anxiety and addiction by Carter Pierce, he elucidates how addiction and anxiety impeded his life and a transition to self-acceptance all the while clearly intimating that anxiety is an aspect of human life such as having thoughts boredom and self-doubt and if they are assimilated in real life one can actually delight in love and a fulfilled lifetime. Pierce highlights that memoirs from his past, what society conceives as memorable circumstances were loaded with anxious thoughts of self dread and self-doubt leading him to analyze the defining moments that brought about such an infringement of anxiety on his life, reminiscing on his parents' actions and definitions of his condition. He further explores how it became prevalent in his childhood resulting to him hiding it through immersing in the need for a routine like schoolwork that and provided relief from his anxiety. The constant indulging in work and a system, however, did not terminate his anxiety or prevent it from causing muscle tension and kinks that compressed his ribcage. The visit to the doctor who prescribed oxycodone and Xanax set him on the path to addiction to the pills when his anxiety would fully disappear a "warm embrace" Pierce calls it. Clinging to the pills eventually led to overdosing and separation from family, until he decided to take action and see a therapist. The journey to recovery and acceptance then began. He concludes by saying that his anxiety is still there but finding a way to incorporate it to his life led him to be able to control it.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The article is a discourse to expose the life of a person struggling with addiction and anxiety and how society overlooks it. The article is an epiphany of societal negligence supported by the fact that no one recognized the author as hiding from his thoughts by indulging in school activities. My reaction to it is that of self-awareness and self-acceptance as anxiety is just a part of daily life as pierce writes.

Pierce identifies symptoms such as self-doubt that is evident from him second guessing everything he took upon, a guise to hide his anxious state and avoiding it through taking up tasks to distract him from his anxious thoughts, panic attacks, throes of muscle spasms and paranoia. The symptoms the author describes of anxiety are not what I believed them to be, other than panic attacks which are fairly common in anxious people, symptoms such as muscle spasms and paranoia are not particularly linked to anxiety. The article stands out to me as it portrays that one can spiral out of control with even the closest members of your family failing to identify the symptoms. It is due to the fact that one can engage in self-doubt, which is something that almost everyone has had at a juncture in their lives, but once it consumes a person, not even the closest people would notice but as long as they offer support, it can be overcome. Pierce strikes a personal connection in this article when he refers to his self-loathing and self-doubt as something I have experienced it becomes easy to understand how it led to his anxiety consuming him. The real problem is learning to control the thoughts and incorporating them in daily life for the ability to enjoy one's life.

Works Cited

Pierce, Carter. " Through my eyes; living with anxiety and addiction". Medicalnewstoday.com published 12 April 2019. www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324926.php Accessed 24th April 2019.