Henderson knew she had something wrong, but she couldn’t put a name to it. Without knowing what exactly was wrong, she felt frustrated and everything seemed harder. Once Henderson found out it was anxiety she had, a weight was lifted off of her shoulders because know she knew what the problem was.

“Sixth grade was really tough. It was just really difficult I didn’t have a lot of friends, and so I was really bad myself,” Henderson said. “I realized I had really bad issues talking to people and just making friends.”

Henderson finally found out that she had anxiety when she was in eighth grade. She says she first realized she had something wrong in the sixth grade, but she didn’t found out it was social anxiety that she had until the eighth grade.

Social anxiety causes Henderson to become anxious when she has to start a conversation. In her head, she thinks that when she starts a conversation she is being an inconvenience to the person she is talking to. However, if another person starts the conversation with her she can hold a conversation with no problems.

Because of this, most of the time Henderson’s friends are the ones who start the conversations because they know that it’s hard for her to. This helps Henderson cope with her anxiety. Not only do her friends help her with her anxiety, but Henderson says many of her friends also have anxiety so she helps them too.

Junior Melissa Bushong is one of Henderson’s friends that helps her with her anxiety. Henderson says Bushong is there for her whenever she needs it. She listens when Henderson needs to rant or when she needs to cry.

“I can’t really describe how I help her, I’m just there for her,” Bushong said. “That’s all she really needs for the most part.”

Bushong says that Henderson is one of those people where there isn’t much that can help her anxiety. When she is having an anxiety there isn’t much she can do for Henderson but be there for her, Bushong says. She feels it’s hard for others to understand what is happening to Henderson in that moment.