Whenever people discuss anxiety, they typically gravitate to the negatives: the lack of flexibility, moodiness, insomnia, and outbursts over things that other people may find inconsequential, but there is one situation in which a person may actually benefit from an anxiety disorder: an actual emergency.
Surviving the Wave Pool
When I was about seven or eight, my dad took me to a water park for the first time. I wasn’t big on water slides, so I spent most of my time in the wading pools and tide pools. They had a wave machine they called “Breaker Beach.” It was on a gradient, so while the waves were turned off, I went up to the thick red line that none without inner tubes were allowed to cross. my goal was to stand atop of it to see how much taller I was in comparison. I could still touch the bottom and keep my head above water if I stood on my toes, but just barely.
Not the Life of the Party
I was invited to go to a baby shower over the weekend. It was for a lady from my small group at church, but I ended up not going. Originally, it was due to the fact that my son had a Boy Scout meeting that conflicted with the time of the baby shower, so my husband and I wanted to be there for that, since it was his last meeting of the year and they were planning a rank-up ceremony where my son would receive his hat and book and the other things he would need for Boy Scouts next year. However, my son ended up getting some kind of illness the night before which caused him to feel very lethargic and he had a high fever and an upset stomach. My husband told me I should go to the baby shower since we couldn’t attend the ceremony with a sick Boy Scout. He would stay home with the kids and I could go to the event.