Macy Zeiger

Composition
Miss Wittwer
December 6, 2016

Dear Reader,
Your heart is pounding, and youre sweating. You have massive headaches, are
experiencing dizziness, and youre stomach is in 1000 knots. This is the everyday life of
someone with anxiety. Anxiety is the feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an
imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Anxiety disorders are the most
common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and
older. In my project, I communicate what its like to live a life with an anxiety disorder.
Having anxiety is not a huge deal, but some cases can be more severe than others.
Anxiety may be caused by a mental condition, a physical condition, the effects of drugs, or a
combination of these. The doctor's initial task is to see if your anxiety is caused by a medical
condition (Goldberg). Common external factors that can cause anxiety are stress at work, stress
from school, stress in a personal relationship such as marriage, financial stress, stress from an
emotional trauma such as the death of a loved one, stress from a serious medical illness, side
effect of medication, use of an illicit drug, such as cocaine, and ect. Anxiety is a disorder that can
be self diagnosed. Some symptoms that come from having anxiety are feeling nervous, being
restless or tense, having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom, having an increased heart
rate, breathing rapidly (hyperventilation), sweating, trembling, feeling weak or tired, having

trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry, having trouble
sleeping, experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems, having difficulty controlling worry, and
having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety (Mayo Clinic Staff). There are ways to cope
with this disorder. These include eating well balanced meals, get enough sleep, exercise daily,
accept the fact that you can control anything, and many more (Tips to Manage Anxiety and
Stress).
Choosing a topic to do my project on was very stressful for me, but I knew that the topic
of anxiety would be perfect. I feel that, especially during school, I experience mild anxiety. I get
stressed over the littlest of things often. My findings shaped my project by educating me with
facts about a disorder that I possibly have. I gathered very different sources with different
information about my topic that I believe will benefit my project greatly.
My two favorite genre pieces are my to do list and the informative piktochart I made.
The to do list includes everything that a person with an anxiety disorder might think about or
do on an everyday basis. This genre piece includes a little bit of humor as well, which I think
reflects my personality nicely. My informative piktochart includes information about family
therapy that can prevent anxiety disorders in children. My piktochart gives a more visual way of
viewing my research, but getting the same information across. I am happy with all of my genre
pieces, but these two are my favorite.
I hope this impacts anyone who views it. I included important information that can be
beneficial to many people. This information includes symptoms to self diagnose yourself with an
anxiety order, ways to cope with your anxiety, and other beneficial topics. After viewing my
multi research project, I hope to inform people with information about anxiety disorders and

hopefully have them learn something from this all in the end.