World Health Day 2025

What feelings do you have when you hear the word “anxiety”? Is anxiety about weakness or strength, vulnerability or courage for you? Do or did you have anxiety? Is it ok for you to accept the fact that every human being has anxiety in this or that form during his/her life?

The extreme path of life forces us to live in anxiety from day to day even not understanding and seeing it, as it is on a very deep unconscious level. Someone feeling something strange like negative ruminating thoughts, catastrophizing, little nausea, a tiny spasm, or hands shivering, constant fear of everything new, inner resistance to any change, trying to control everything, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, rapid heartbeat, etc. (not understanding and accepting that these are manifestations of anxiety) will drink too much coffee, alcohol, antidepressants or psychedelics, sleeping peels and sedatives, or just smoke instantly to calm down or even benumb those feelings.

I was a person who unconsciously tried to benumb those terrible feelings with coffee and escapism in the way of shifting attention to feeding my ego and darkness by overworking, attending events, going to restaurants, shopping, and traveling. I put in my agenda so much that even anxiety was silent, but the truth is that it was silent only on the surface, in the depth of my essence it became bigger and bigger and bigger, and one day that anxiety erupted from within my being and swept away everything in its path.

I was born in the Soviet Union, which was saturated with fear and anxiety. I was raised in a sovereign Ukraine with a 90s vibe that was also full of fear and anxiety. I grew up in the 2000s but occasionally and rapidly the path of everything in Kyiv became so quick and extreme that I unconsciously felt that ugly fear and anxiety again and again. The blossom of Ukraine brought new rules of modern business society and life itself, and I needed to run without any stop to be in the flow that of course also was full of fear and anxiety. And then one day I realized that anxiety was my adrenaline, I could not live anymore without it, I was addicted, I used to catastrophize and agonize over everything because of the huge speed of life and societal rules that forced to run even faster. Ultimately, one day neither my body nor my mind could live anymore with those levels of adrenaline attached to anxiety, I just broke as a doll very rapidly and unpredictably.

In 2020, I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder. I did not tell anybody about this fact besides my sister. But honestly, would you? If you tell it truly and openly, you would lose your job, your friends, and all of your identities which is very important for your ego. And definitely, all of your ambiance will look at you as if you are almost crazy not neither accepting you nor wanting to have any more relations with you. This is how our society unfortunately exists. But anxiety is not a diagnosis, it is a state of our mind. Everybody has anxiety, but because nobody tells us to take care of ourselves otherwise we can have consequences with our health, but everybody tells us that normality is this and that and we must behave in this way otherwise we will be OUT. We will applaud and congratulate people who achieve success in their careers and businesses, but we will never do the same with people who overcome health hurdles and transform them into wisdom.

If I wrote I became a billionaire, everybody would read me and applaud, want to be my friend and to be like I am; but almost nobody would like to make friends with me and become a part of my ambiance just because I overcame anxiety as they titled it disorder without any medication treatment but working deeply and hardly day by day, month by month, year by year.

With this intimate story, I would like to applaud and congratulate all of those who faced mental or physical issues and overcame them or are on the challenging path of overcoming them. You are true and brave warriors who deserve appreciation, acceptance, and admiration.

That is true diversity, equality, and inclusion, not buzzwords that a lot of companies are writing in their posts on social media and websites.

Only diving into the extreme depth of my anxiety that terrified me I found the other side – that was serenity. Serenity is deep inner calm at the moment here and now where the mind is quiet and at ease, and the body feels freedom without any burden. It does not mean that problems dissolve, but it means that amid chaos and turbulence, you can find beauty, peace, and wisdom.

With big gratitude for my personal experience, if not all of my uncertainties and challenges I would never be Yuliia I am now. That anxiety disorder was not a threat, it was one of the first catalysts for change and my inner transformation.

The 7th of April is World Health Day. Let`s take care of our physical and mental health and celebrate our health successes.  

P.S. I am not a doctor, scientist, or psychotherapist, I am an ordinary conscious person sharing my personal story. If you have health issues, you need to consult a specialist immediately.