I can remember the day my anxiety reared its ugly head. I was 19. It was the year John Kennedy Jr. and his wife were killed in a plane crash. My mom was driving me to work. I became tense and my stomach was in knots. As we drove, I would look at billboards and if I didn't read every single word before we passed it, I panicked. The knots in my stomach turned into a ball of anxiety that needed release, much like a geyser. I couldn't speak. I didn't know it at the time but that, my friends, was OCD. Since then, I have also developed health anxiety, also known as Hypochondria. My anxiety is a big part of my life and I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that it probably always will be. Even if just a little bit. Some days are better than others. But when it's bad, you can end up in the E.R. paying $200 for some piece of mind. Ask me how I know. But I'm not crazy. And if you suffer from mental ILLNESS, neither are you.