An explanation of anxiety

Anxiety in Comic Form

This is somewhat accurate, but not the whole picture for me.  I also experience anxiety as fog.  Normally I can see a few steps ahead where I'm walking, and my thoughts, if not precisely measured, are at least in a steady rhythm.  They follow trains of thought methodically. 

Sometimes, though, when I'm anxious?  My thoughts skitter about, jumping from track to track of thought.  Or even worse, they hop right off the tracks and get buried in the fog.  So then I can't even think about anything, because all I can see is fog.  This often happens right before a road trip.  I get so anxious about packing and getting everything cleaned up, that instead of doing something about those things, I sit in a corner and compulsively surf the Internet or read.  It gets nothing done, but it makes me feel slightly better until the stress of not doing anything makes it so bad I flail in any direction at all just to get something done. 

It's bad.  And it sucks.  And it's also not my fault, but it's really hard to believe that.