Anxiety humor.


Anxiety. Have you ever heard about it? I bet you have. That’s only my personal speculations but I feel like everyone of us has, at least, that one friend who suffers from social anxiety. That’s the one who always avoids ordering pizza by phone or buying tickets at the counter. Or that one person who always “have something to do” when you invite them to go to a party full of strangers. People very often call them “antisocial” ones, at least that’s what I usually hear among Poles. When it comes to my group of friends, it’s me who is lucky to be called “antisocial”.

 But in my opinion it’s not an appropriate word for the attitude that I, and a lot of other people, represent. It’s not that I hate society and don’t want to participate in any social encounter. Believe me, I enjoy being among people… but only ones that I know and I feel comfortable with. You have no idea how badly I would like to be that “positive girl who can speak with anyone about anything and everything”. But then it comes. The anxiety. You start to analyse you every word, every gesture, every “what if?”, so it’s easier to stay calm in the corner or actually in your home. You're trying to fall asleep and then your brain reminds you of an awkward situation you've been in couple of years ago. You start to overthink. And that’s the way the cookie crumbles. 

Social anxiety is not, strictly speaking, particularly funny. Persistent and recurring fear of social situations and their potential consequences can wreak serious havoc on your work, career prospects, social life, and general ability to be a human being. Eventually, to lead at least partially a normal life, you have to deal with your anxiety somehow. Obviously, some people handle their anxiety better than others. How I do it? I make jokes and laugh about it. If you are gifted with a sense of humor, especially dark humor like I am, some symptoms or behaviors that you represent can occur pretty funny. Running across the road to avoid a conversation and narrowly avoiding being run over has its own weird funny charm. It's like once you learn to laugh at yourself in a way it makes your skin thicker.

Here you have some of this “dark, anxiety jokes” that make me laugh at myself and at the same time keep going in a society. Probably a lot of you won’t find it as funny as I do, but let’s try!








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