Intro

I am Grace.
I am clumsy.
I am artsy.
I am anxiety.
I am introverted.
I am Jesus-lover.
I am stubborn.
I am depression.
I am thoughtful.
I am apologetic.
I am weird.
I am passionate.
I am caring.
I am sensitive.
I am trying.

All of these things and more are words used to describe me, but two of them shouldn't be.
I am Grace.
I HAVE anxiety.
I HAVE depression.
It's so easy to pause when you see those words. To say that they are all you are, or all someone else is, because it changes how you treat them. Because it makes you see them differently.
But in all honesty, don't all descriptive words change the picture in your head?
I could tell you I often wear fedoras and your picture of me would most likely now include a fabulous fedora.

But then again, those two words mean a tad more than a fashion item.

There is a lot weight carried in those words, a lot of subtext, stress, and meaning. 

The problem is, many people just think of the words, and not the human.

I have severe anxiety and severe depression. Those words don't carry the weight.
I do. 

I carry the sadness, the exhaustion, the pain of constant conflict between worrying about everything and not caring about anything. 

The words that mean so much to others and what they think about the people they describe, mean only a diagnosis.

The words mean different things for ever person they affect. 

For me, the actuality of their impact on my life cannot fit in those words.
They pale in comparison to the excruciatingly confusing and fearful fog covering my brain when I have a panic attack. Or the weight of a day before me when I wake up and have no ambition. 

Those words can be used to define me, sure. 

But even more so, I describe them. As is every person separate to how the words change their life.

Define yourself. Define each word that is used to say "you."

And never let the words define you.