I got a very good grade in Cryptic 210.

If you want to give a piece of advice to friends of people with anxiety disorders – They should try saying what they are going to do, instead of asking what you want.

Asking creates anxiety – for me, I have to consider all the ramifications.

For Example:  One could say – I am going to start a fire, and move outside in about an hour… if you would like to join me…

Versus:  Do you want to go outside with me in about an hour?

The second one requires a tremendous about of thought for someone like me.  If I am not ready for this, it could cause me to crash.  If I have such a great responsibility, it will become undecidable.  There is not way to know enough to make the right choice.  But I am the one who has to decide the outcome…

In the first example… I can relax, and think about it for a while.  The more relaxed I can be, the greater the likely hood I will go along with the flow.

And I think there are a lot of people like me… Atychiphobia.  The fear of failure.  It means everything must be figured out, to the last detail.  Which of course, is impossible.  Crash.  Even if you deal with it, it drains.  You have to fight the fears, and push on.  There will be less energy for other things.

Every time you have to go thru this cycle, a little bit of energy is lost.  Hell… sometimes a LOT of energy is lost.  There is no predicting.  But… sooner or later, there will not be enough energy left to make it thru the next “situation”.  Some days we do better than other (of course), but there can be big swings.  Good days, and bad.

So PLEASE do not add to the burden by phrasing things in terms of a question.  We are not playing Jeopardy.  Except our own.