If Your Anxiety Could Text

If anxiety were a separate person, it would be... kind of an *ssh*le. And that's captured perfectly in the BuzzFeed video "If Your Anxiety Could Text." Because if thought your anxiety seemed like a jerk in your head, just imagine what it would look like typed out on your phone.

Anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million adults in the United States, making them the most common form of mental illness in the country. And even if you don't have an anxiety disorder, chances are you still occasionally get anxious about things that maybe don't make the most sense. Because brains are fun like that. And because anxiety sucks like that.

Interestingly, if your anxiety could text you, it might actually be somewhat helpful. For instance, AnxietyBox, developed by Paul Ford, sends you an email every day "from" your anxiety to help the things you feel anxious about more manageable. After all, the things that seem so scary in your head often don't look as frightening once you see them written out. And although AnxietyBox is currently offline, having it when it was available was helpful for a lot of people.

And although you can't have your anxiety send you an email, you can see in the video what it might look like if it gained the ability to text. The BuzzFeed video is heavy on social anxiety, but the principle still holds.

Here's what it looks like when anxiety learns how to text.

1. It Immediately Jumps To The Worst Conclusions

2. And Has No Faith In Your Friends

3. It Hates The Idea Of Sleep

4. And It's Generally Pretty Awful For No Reason

But hey, at least it sometimes includes emojis?

Images: Andrew Zaeh for Bustle; BuzzFeedVideo/YouTube (4)