Let’s Pretend This Never Happened gets into your struggles with anxiety. When did you first realize something was wrong? I’ve had an anxiety disorder all of my life, but I only had it diagnosed about seven years ago, when I had my daughter. I realized I was spending most of my time terrified that something would happen to my child and that was keeping me from enjoying being her mom. I decided to see a professional. [sidebar]13 Ways To Feel Less Anxious How do you deal with the anxiety? I do behavioral therapy, breathing techniques, and I also take a lot of prescribed drugs to keep the anxiety from becoming unmanageable. It’s also helpful that so many people know I have severe anxiety disorder, so I know that they’d understand if I had to run and hide in the bathroom for a few minutes while I talked myself down from a panic attack. You also have rheumatoid polyarthritis—a form of arthritis that affects multiple joints. Were you surprised to get diagnosed with that at such a young age? A lot of people assume that all arthritis starts when you’re older, but rheumatoid arthritis can hit at any age. I consider myself very lucky that I had 30-something years before the real pain set in. 8 Arthritis Myths—Busted! What treatments have you found to be effective for the pain? Things that help the most for me are dry heat [such as a heating pad or heat lamp], not pushing myself when I start to feel a flare-up, and taking corticosteroid injections. How does your sense of humor help you cope? There’s something very powerful about laughing at something as horrible as an incurable disease or disorder. It has the power to shrink the problem and make it seem so much less monstrous. New Ways To Ease Arthritis Any anxiety or arthritis myths you’d like dispel? I think a lot of people who haven’t dealt with mental illness themselves find it hard to understand how the person suffering can’t just pull themselves out of the depression or anxiety attack. Telling a person with clinical depression to “just cheer up” is the equivalent of telling someone to control their blood sugar using only their mind. What advice do you have for Prevention readers living with these same ailments? Don’t give up. It took me years to find the perfect combination of drugs and doctors to fix all of the issues that I had. I still have my bad days, but it’s so much better now. I thank God every day that I didn’t give up when it was at its hardest.
