Head Above Water

If you struggle with anxiety, panic, or overwhelm and ever think that no one else has been through what you're experiencing, listen to the song in this post. Avril Lavigne came back onto the music scene last year with her album "Head Above Water." The title-track is a very emotional pop song describing a devastating struggle. Prior to the writing of this album, Avril became extremely exhausted. Doctors tried to diagnose her with anxiety, but she ended up finding out that she had Lyme disease. At one point, she had accepted that she was going to die. She ended up pulling through and wrote her latest album singing about the challenges she faced.

The song "Head Above Water" starts off with a beautiful piano melody that sounds like you're sitting in front of a babbling brook. In the first verse, she sings, "Yeah, my life is what I'm fighting for. Can't part the sea, can't reach the shore. I won't let this pull me overboard." This leads into the chorus, where she pleads "God keep my head above water, don't let me drown." The bridge is so powerful and her voice soars. She sings "I can't see in the stormy weather, I can't seem to keep it all together, and I can't swim the ocean like this forever, and I can't breathe." The chorus follows with slightly different lyrics "God keep my head above water, I lose my breath at the bottom, come rescue me, I'll be waiting, I'm too young to fall asleep."

Can you imagine how emotional it must be for Avril to perform this song?!? She was literally singing for her life when she wrote this song. If you're reading this, I'm guessing you know exactly how she was feeling when she wrote the lyric "I can't see in the stormy weather, I can't seem to keep it all together." When you are deep in the waters of anxiety, you feel so out of control. You can't control your mind, your body, your life...the smallest things are so overwhelming that you don't know how you will make it. Avril sang it perfectly, "I can't swim the ocean, like this, forever!" It's here where I'd like you to take pause and take a deep breath. THIS IS ALL AN ILLUSION! I know it's a convincing one, and it is the scariest thing you've ever dealt with. But THIS IS ONLY TEMPORARY! You will get past this! You will look back on this one day and think "Wow, I can't believe that was me!"

Make a list of things that make you happy. Here are some of mine:

• Sunshine

• My family

• My sports league teammates

• Our family lake house

• The beach

Now, think about these things...every day, multiple time an hour. Make an album on your phone and add pictures of these things to it. Look at this and feed your mind these happy things.

Know that whatever anxiety brings to you, you will be okay. You aren't going to go crazy or die, no matter how much it may seem like you will. You have survived this many times before. What you're experiencing is not dangerous. It's uncomfortable...that's for sure...but not dangerous. It's like diving into cold water....at first it is so uncomfortable and you're freezing and just want to get out. If you stay in the water, you adapt and it ends up feeling fine. That's how you have to think of anxiety. You're going to feel it and think you can't handle it. You'll want to jump out of your own skin. But keep accepting that what you're feeling is just discomfort. You don't have to like it, but it's only ever discomfort, and you can accept being uncomfortable. After you continually accept the anxiety, your body realizes it's okay and the anxiety goes away.

So, know that you aren't alone. Let Avril's song give you comfort that others (even celebrities) feel just as out of control as you do right now.

I know you see tragic in it...just hold onto the little bit of magic in it!