First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety—A Personal Journey Through Anxiety and Self-Discovery

by Sarah Wilson

IT’S THE MOST INCREDIBLE RELIEF TO KNOW THAT WE’RE ALL WEARING masks . . . and to see them slip on others.

“We must suffer alone. But we can at least hold out our arms to our similarly tortured, fractured, and above all else, anxious neighbors, as if to say, in the kindest way possible: ‘I know . . .’”

I’ve been anxious for a long, long time. I don’t know when or how it kicked in, but I don’t remember a time without it.

I have a condition that can wander all lonely and cloudlike into view from time to time.