As somebody who overcame a different but similarly awful mental illness (addiction to strong opiates, mainly heroin and opium), I can't even begin to pretend I understand what people with anxiety issues are going through. But I know I've been at a point where I thought I would just pack it in, just go into a forest in winter and freeze to death. Didn't obviously and am unbelievably glad I didn't.

You know the generic tips. Get help, believe in change, keep trying. I'm not sure I want to reiterate that because none of these things were what helped me. It was a close friend, somebody I can genuinely say saved my life. And there's what imagine to be the worst problem with generalized anxiety: not easily being able to ask others for help.

Believe me, it wasn't easy for me either. But if social interaction scares you, if going out of the door is an impossibility? Man, I have no idea whatsoever how that could be improved.

Still, and this is vital, giving up for good is never the answer. I was jamming two grams of morphine per day into my veins five years ago, barely still literate and pretty much waiting for death. Back to working, back to a social and romantic life, back to... feeling good. Sober. And I'm neither stronger nor cleverer nor better than anyone else, not by a long shot.