I was talking to a close friend, let’s call this person Friend 1, who is trained in physiology and is a nurse who looks after patients in a mental health hospital. Sorry I can’t say exactly what this person’s qualifications are but she seems very knowledgeable about the job.

Anyway we were talking about another friend, lets call this person Friend 2, who suffers from anxiety and she was saying that:

1) Anxiety is very difficult to treat
2) Anxious people are some of the most selfish people there are as they are always focussed on themselves and their anxieties.

I can’t really comment on what was said but it got me thinking about Friend 2. He has been suffering from anxiety for something like 25 years and the impact it has is:

1) He hasn’t worked full time but instead has worked in the same part time job for something like 20 years
2) He cannot support himself and spent most of the time living with his parents. He moved out to move in with his girlfriend who has her own house.
3) Never fathered any children or raised a family

When you meet he appears quite normal and you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong. There are occasions when you can see the anxiety when he is asked to do something he is not comfortable with.

But after this amount of time, he certainly is in a ‘comfort’ zone with no motivation to change and no grown up responsibilities and sometimes I think maybe, just maybe mind you, he is a little bit lazy. Maybe I am being too hard.

I realise you don’t know all the circumstances and admittedly neither do I but those who have more experience than me about these things, what do you think in general of treatment of anxiety and the ability to lead a ‘normal’ life?