A drawing of my anxiety in the classroom

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Left panel. Anxiety in the classroom: How it looks. Speech bubbles being said to a student, whose head is leaning on her hand: ‘She's not paying attention.’ 'She's too quiet.' 'She doesn't want to be here.' 'She's slacking off.' 'She doesn't try.' Right panel. Anxiety in the classroom: How it feels. Student's thought bubbles as her head is leaning on her hand: ‘I wish I could focus.' 'I must be in trouble.' 'What did the teacher just say?' 'Are they looking at me?' 'I can't breathe.'

Honestly, I wasn’t in school for long. Most of what I remember of it was the crippling anxiety and the poor comments I got from my teachers.

My actions and abilities never translated to how I was actually feeling. It was exhausting—and ended up looking a bit like this.