My name is Szadia and I’m here to talk about my story of what it’s like to have anxiety and low self-esteem.

I have anxiety, everyone has different anxiety depending on the person. My anxiety is stage fright or public speaking, its where you can’t stand in front of lot of people and speak because its difficult.

This started when I was younger, around 6-7 years old, but I didn’t know this until later. When a teacher asks you to stand up or when you know that your about to be called, I get really hot and I start to cry and then shake because of how much I get pressured to do it.

Some people might think that I don’t contribute because “I’m lazy” but in reality, it’s not like that. I worry about what people think of me or if they are going to laugh at me. I don’t know whether they are going to accept a crying person like me.

I also experience low self-esteem. I first experienced it when I was in year 8 going onto year 9. In my past I had a lot of bullying and racism which still impacts my mental health.

In teenagers 70% of girls age 15-17 have low self-esteem but not only girls have it, boys have it as well. It stops me from doing some work at school and talking to anyone like I want to be mute. Teachers think that I’m doing this for attention or I’m just messing around but I’m not. My mates stop being friends with me or make excuses and it makes me feel left out and if they ask me what’s wrong, I ignore the question or if they try to hug me, I push them away.

Over time I am improving. If there was someone in my situation then I would tell them to calm down and inhale, exhale, or have a drink. I hope this article helps people to understand what it’s like to have anxiety and low self-esteem.