After a Lifetime of Anxiety, I Finally Asked for Help

I asked my psychiatrist for an anxiety med after a lifetime of feeling like something was clawing at the inside of my chest, desperate to get out - Alien style.

I’d avoided it for years because of nightmare benzodiazepine stories, but my ability to show up was getting muddied—and I couldn’t afford to let that happen.

The past few years have been unbearabl…