I have a doctors appointment this afternoon and I'm going to bring up my anxiety in hopes of maybe getting medication. A little backstory: I've struggled with both social and general anxiety for as long as I can remember...for most of my life I never even knew what anxiety was. I'm 25 now, and back in school they never taught us about mental health, they kinda touched on it, but I always thought the term "anxiety" just meant temporary nervousness. I thought I was a nervous person my whole life, then I discovered anxiety near the end of high school, early college. I still haven't gotten help though, but I'm really struggling as the anxiety interferes with my everyday life, my work, my relationships, it holds me back so much. I get irritable, overly stressed, worry about every little tiny problem, and on the physical side I get shaky, I stutter, my throat gets tight, my face turns red and hot, heart rate increases, and if it's really bad I cry and can't speak.

Anyone who's talked to their doctor about this, can you give me some advice or share your experience? I guess I'm just worried the doctor won't believe me? It seems like everyone has anxiety these days, it's almost like a trend to say you have anxiety and depression so I don't want mine to be written off. I rarely go to the doctor to begin with so I'm not sure how to start this conversation. I don't want it to sound like I'm desperate begging for meds or something, I just need some relief. Another reason I've avoided this is because I'm a little hesitant to go on meds, I know they can mess with a lot of people and I don't want to become totally dependent...another thing to worry about lol (thanks anxiety).

I also know therapy is super helpful too, but it's honestly something I can't afford right now, my insurance doesn't cover much. I want to get into therapy in the next year if possible but it's not an option at the moment. So I'd appreciate anyone's insight on this and how I can go about talking about anxiety with my doctor. Thanks.