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When I was forced to take a leave of
absence because of my mental health,

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by the time I was dealing with, you know,
general anxiety all the time,

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I was dealing with pretty
persistent panic attacks.

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The way that it manifests itself

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in me is just in the form
of kind of hyper-vigilance.

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So I was like hyper-vigilant
of the sensations in my body.

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I had, you know, persistent panic attacks.

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But most of all, I was just really
vigilant of the sensations in my body.

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Like, like, for example, when I felt
my stomach being tight,

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which is a symptom of anxiety,
I would associate that with stomach cancer.

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Or when I was..
Exercise or something like that,

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and I felt like a pain in my groin
or something like that.

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I would associate that
with testicular cancer.

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You know, I was just very hyper-vigilant,
very reactive to the sensations that I felt.

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And as I moved into going back to school

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in the fall, it really
manifested itself as intrusive

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thoughts and my intrusive thoughts were

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really around suicide
and my own sexuality.