Der Mooses' Story

I interviewed a young woman I know who happened to suffer from what the medical world calls General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Her voice was quiet and shaky, and (like clockwork) every few seconds she would look around anxiously. The atmosphere was tense:
"Every night before I go to bed I think about everything and worry about everything.My first day at work, I forgot to give someone their receipt and I was so worried I almost cried because I thought I was gonna get fired!" The interview went on in this tone, she went on to talk about an unrequited love she had a few weeks back and how her anxiety kept her from pursuing her bigoted endeavor. "I was to afraid of impressing him, because I thought I would do something wrong, and I'm really afraid of that." Her eyes ached with a feeling of regret of what could have been but wasn't because of her anxiety-driven fear holding her back. She was cognizant of it too. Several times I caught her spazming out random lines of recognition like: "It's so bad! It's so like . . . Oh my god!" Der Moose suffers from a specific kind of anxiety more formally known as Social Anxiety Disorder: A persistent irrational fear of situations in which the person may be closely watched and judged by others, as in public speaking, eating, or using public facilities. A person then becomes fearful of social or performance situations in which they may be subject to the scrutiny of others. As she described it, it controls every aspect of her life. She loses sleep over it, ruins her thought process by blocking her mind, makes her incapable of confronting people head-on, and is incapable of loving. She also mentioned it made her over-eat, mostly on goldfish, which you can interpret for yourself, but let me give you a hint: the snack that smiles backTM. So, is anxiety destroying the lives of teenagers like Der Moose everywhere? Yes..... but in some cases not as extreme. Although this case is a tad over-the-top, even minor cases of anxiety really can have a negative effect on teens and alter their personalities and behaviors for the worst.