Anxiety has been my cross to bear for as long as I can remember.
I was stressed out as a little kid when adults would make eye contact with me.
It was just for a fleeting moment while walking by in the store, but I always took it seriously and assumed that people were staring at me for ulterior motives. That might indicate that I’m on the autism spectrum, but to be honest I’ve never gotten diagnosed and I’m not really sure about that. I’ve had people tell me that they thought I was but it’s really hard to diagnose when you’re not a physician or a trained mental health professional. Regardless of that option, I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I basically have generalized anxiety and I get it throughout the day from a myriad of different sources. One of the few things that seems to calm me down fairly quickly is good air conditioning. I live in a fairly hot climate and sometimes the heat contributes to my stress and anxiety. Just turning on my central air conditioner and setting the thermostat to a low temperature is sometimes all it takes to get me to calm down and get out of my anxious thought cycles. When I’m in the car and I’m driving from one place to another, often I’ll turn up the AC a little higher than usual if I’m feeling fairly stressed out that day. It’s unfortunate because I’ve worked in some offices where there was a bad air conditioner and the heat contributed to my work-related stress.