My anxiety and I have an peculiar friendship due to how overprotective "he" can be. He gets jealous when I don't give him the attention he wants and becomes uneasy, annoying and sometimes makes things debilitating when I give in. We have this love/hate relationship, this is how it works:

Most of the time he tells me that I need to be careful in case something terrible happens (which becomes annoying after the 6th time within 1 hour). Other times I just get so upset that he is anticipating something bad happening because it feels like it is preventing me from just enjoying my life. What helps me get through the chaos is our mutual friends, "Cortex" and "Amygdala." Cortex is always late to the party, which leaves me with Amygdala, who is a little bit of a spaz but means well. She is hyperaware of worst case scenario happening in just about every situation.. but then reminds me that she is only doing it out of love. She acts tough, like my bodyguard, but what she doesn't realize is that I am very much capable of handling myself and any "future disaster."

Meanwhile, Cortex finally arrives to the party.. This is where things start to get interesting. Cortex tells me not to listen to Amygdala or Anxiety because he believes that they are just being overprotective and unrealistic (which I already know). Cortex tells me that I am wasting my breath by trying to convince Anxiety and Amygdala that "everything is OK." Instead, he recommends that I just disengage from all the noise and arguing that they are doing and tells me just to live my life (easier said than done I think). Finally, Cortex sits both of them down and explains that they cannot baby me forever... He suggests to both of them that they need to let me be more present and less involved in the chaos of the unpredictable things that our friendship may bring. He tells them that the possibility of something good or bad happening to our friendship will have to be worked out when (and if) they actually happen instead of trying to prevent the things that have yet to occur.

As you can imagine this is a HUGE party pooper discussing these "uncertainties." So we finally decide to just all agree to work together (for now). I tell them that I just need them to support me while I engage in the reality of what is happening in front of me. Cortex gets me, but Anxiety and Amygdala aren't completely onboard.. They dismiss my comment by saying "what if reality is dangerous and our friendship is at stake" followed by the ultimatum: Either I choose our friendship (which involves engaging in worrying about potential issues that may arise) or to choose reality (which involves allowing myself to "just be").

As you can imagine, they are not happy about this, but I choose to just be and ask them to just enjoy the party with me. So we agree to disagree and I make a toast and say "what could possibly go wrong with our friendship?" Anxiety responds: "I'm glad you asked....."

To be continued...