Anxiety is a word that gets used more and more often as time progresses. However, it is starting to get misused for people who crave the attention that the serious disorder brings.

This misuse has started to cause a lack of seriousness for those who are actually suffering from a real disorder, as they are sometimes viewed as just another person wanting attention.

There is a massive difference between getting butterflies in your stomach before a speech because you’re nervous and suddenly feeling like the room is closing in on you and you can’t breathe.

People don’t seem to realize the impact that faking a disorder for a brief moment in the spotlight can have on people they don’t even know.

Even just getting on Facebook, you are likely to see hundreds of posts about anxiety. They range from basic information on the disorder all the way to someone feeling like it’s consuming their life.

However, how do we know how to take this seriously when it’s available to anyone and everyone to post no matter their true state?

The fact is, there are many people out there that would do anything to get a few more likes or just a fraction more attention. The only thing that’s even minorly good about the need for attention is it becomes obvious very quickly and those people are easily found out.

The downside? The more you meet people who fake disorders like anxiety, the less likely you are to believe the next person who may actually be struggling. As a society, we fail to take mental disorders seriously because we are surrounded by people who use them as a ticket for their moment of fame.

Anxiety needs awareness, but it needs the right awareness. Those who suffer from it realize how much it can truly hinder your day to day activities. They realize there are certain social events and situations they are not going to be able to be around because it’s too much.

So what can we do as a society to remedy the problems we have set before us? How can we create proper awareness for an issue that has been so misused? One answer, unfortunately, is to always take someone serious no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

Every person who struggles with anxiety is going to struggle with it differently. Even if you meet countless people who claim to have anxiety but are just looking for the attention, believe the next person who says they have it.

We can’t make people stop faking disorders for attention, no matter how hard we try. We can, however, make the people who are really struggling feel like they are being taken seriously. No one deserves to be written off for their well-being because another person thought it would be a good idea to over exaggerate how they are feeling for the sympathy of others.