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Anxiety and Activism

Activism is growing to be a huge part of my life. Generalised Anxiety Disorder has always been a gigantic part of my life. At one point I thought I was never going to be able to combine the two, especially since my anxiety disorder is a chronic one. But yesterday, I went to my first rally for "Rally2Repeal".

I think to say that I was anxious was an understatement. I had put myself forward and became the auditor of the abortion rights group in my university, so I had to go to these things now. A part of my anxiety was afraid that I was going to let the whole group down. What if I wasn't what they wanted? What if they would ask me to step down? What if I did or said something they found unacceptable?
My other anxiety was the fear of being confronted aggressively by an anti-choicer. One of my strongest triggers is someone yelling at me. Again, when I put myself forward for the job, I knew this, but yesterday made it feel almost uncomfortably real.
But I went to the rally, and I loved it, a great triumph over my anxiety. I can only speak for myself, but following these tips is what helped me be calm;
  1.  Someone always knew where I was, and texted me now and again to make sure I was ok.
  2. I met up with people I didn't necessarily know well, but were from the same university as I was. I felt safe within a group.
  3. I brought a jacket with me. Another unfortunate woman was called a Nazi on her way over for wearing her repeal jumper. As I made my way to the rally on my own, I felt safer covering up my shirt in case someone would react badly to it.
  4. I brought a bottle to hold. Drinking or holding the bottle gave me something to do when I was still waiting for friendly faces and kept me grounded.
  5. I spoke to the organisers. It was calming to have friendly faces validating what you were there for.
  6. I took my medication a good few hours in advance before I left.
Activism is a big part of my world. There is so much unjustice in the world that I feel obligated to at least try and help, both people like me, and people very different to me. It was a big decision to not allow anxiety to prevent me from doing that. But anxiety is a part of me, and I am not part of my anxiety.



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