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Chronic Illness icon
Chronic Illness 5d
I got prescribed/referred for a wheelchair today and no matter how I tell myself that my mobility is more important, I can’t stop having panic attacks over the idea of others’ judgements (specifically extended family) 🙃🥲
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Anonymous 2d

Thank you!! 🫶

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Anonymous 2d

This is general like self-confidence advice I was given a long time ago, but like in the moment, if you can tell yourself something like “everyone here has an equal right to be here as me” or like “I’m entitled to the same level of respect as everyone else here” it might be able to help. I know those were kind of general, but if you remind yourself enough, I think it kind of becomes automatic and then self reassurance can override anxiety about other people’s perception of you.

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 2d

And just to be clear, I’m not at all saying that your anxiety is not valid or that negative experiences with family aren’t likely to happen. I just deeply struggled with similar anxiety in a circumstance where I kind of just had to push through instead of avoid like I usually do 😭 and it helped me.

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 2d

My other advice would be maybe, if reassurance is something that helps you, to reach out to a few family members or cousins or something that you do feel comfortable with that might be with you in scenarios with those family members, and they can also just have your back in the moment either to defend you or to just stop and say to you like “we want you here as you are”

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 2d

Of course!! my personal version of this was feeling really out of place and insecure on my college campus, and I had one close friend who just looked at me and said “I’m not going to be insecure in a place I’m paying to be, I have every right to walk around here as everyone else” and it didn’t work right away-if I’m being real, it took like a year if not more, but eventually, I didn’t have to keep repeating it to myself, it was just an automatic thought and things got a lot better after that.

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