Above the fold

Anxiety

Someone on Twitter (reliable source, I know) said that today was National Anxiety Awareness Day.

That’s a good thing, I think.

One of the best things that has happened to our popular discourse over the last little while is that we’ve become a lot cooler with the idea of people suffering from depression as deserving support and recognition.  The outpouring of positivity that comes when some public figure announces they have had difficulties with depression is a huge change from just a few years ago.

But we *also* need to acknowledge the effect of anxiety, which hurts a lot of people as well, and in certain respects is even more insidious and invisible than depression.

The thing that gets me is how it manifests itself physically.  When you’re feeling anxious, it’s not so much what you’re doing as what you feel you can’t do.  It’s a form of paralysis.  It’s extremely exhausting.  It leaves you wanting to do nothing, feeling tired, feeling like you have to get away from everything, feeling inexpressive and inadequate and small.

I think - even more than depression - that a severe episode of anxiety can be baffling for someone who hasn’t experienced it.  From the outside it looks wildly irrational, unjustified, a bizzare focus on trivialities and an inability to do the most simple, straightforward things.  The intensity can be distressing for loved ones as well as the “flatness” - where you put up a brick wall around yourself where you can come across as inexpressive, physically inert and not “there”.  Of course the way a lot of people cope with it is to drink heavily and withdraw from those around them.

I remember reading as a description of some fictional characters that they needed a few drinks before they could relax enough to a state that most people have while they are sober.  I think it’s true for some people I know.

Beyondblue has some stuff on it that explains it all better than I can.

I’ve had to deal with it, on and off, for many years.  I strongly suspect that my anxiety played a key role in the collapse of my most recent relationship.  I’m going to try to make a more concerted effort to deal with it through regular counselling, and of course, healthy living (fingers crossed!)

Oh, and another thing, anxiety can also lead to depressive episodes, so the two things are interlinked.

Anyway, I just wanted to say - if you’re ever talking about depresison, and spreading awareness of depression, don’t forget anxiety too.  It’s a thing that affects a lot of people, who, I think quite unfairly, have it tough sometimes.

Nauseous vs. Nauseated

spinlighted:

monkeytypist:

spinlighted:

I feel nauseous = I feel like I make other people sick.

I feel nauseated = I feel sick.

Learn the difference.

That’s not true.  The two senses of “nauseous” (either “causing nausea” or “suffering from nausea”) appeared at about the same time in etymological terms.  The “suffering from nausea” sense is predominant in modern times but it’s not a neologism.

Eh, nauseous only began being used as nauseated after WWII in Brooklyn. Up until then it exclusively meant causing nausea and not suffering from nausea. But I go with Shrunk and White on this one, “The first means `sickening to contemplate’; the second means `sick at the stomach.’ Do not, therefore, say `I feel nauseous,’ unless you are sure you have that effect on others.”

<deleted first para after I re-read>

In any case, this ‘rule’ smacks of arbitrariness, which is something I’ve always despised about Strunk and White.  The purported “logic” that they advocate doesn’t make you a better writer or more intelligible. The idea that “I’m saying something that means the opposite of what it says, despite my communicative intention being abundantly clear” isn’t exactly ‘logical’, after all.

Plenty of words have overlapping or contradictory meanings; my favourite example is “sanction”.  When that becomes a problem, people find ways around it - like when they started using “nauseating” to mean “causing nausea” and thus largely eliminating the problem of the dual meaning.

Nauseous vs. Nauseated

spinlighted:

I feel nauseous = I feel like I make other people sick.

I feel nauseated = I feel sick.

Learn the difference.

That’s not true.  The two senses of “nauseous” (either “causing nausea” or “suffering from nausea”) appeared at about the same time; in the etymological record.  The “suffering from nausea” sense is predominant in modern times but it’s not a neologism.

cankerbloxxom:

I agree with you entirely, with the exception of liking Tony Abbott. There is not a single molecule in my entire body that can come close to ‘liking’ this guy.

I think his views are loathsome and his personality abrasive and off-putting, but I admit that I do occasionally find his bluntness refreshing.  He can actually be quite self-deprecating at times.  “Shit happens” in 2007 was perhaps the best example of what I mean.

if you're reading this, it means you're okay.