Welcome to the Ask Home Insemination Kit advice column, where our team of experts tackles your questions about life, love, body image, friendships, parenting, and everything else that might be causing you confusion.
This week’s topic: Do you often find yourself believing that someone in your life is upset with you due to… anxiety?
Dear Home Insemination Kit,
I’ve dealt with anxiety for a large part of my life, and it seems to have amplified as I’ve grown older. Recently, I can’t shake the feeling that everyone around me hates me. Logically, I understand this isn’t necessarily true. But anxiety is a pain, right? With all the chaos from the pandemic and recent political events, it feels like my family, some friends, and even acquaintances on social media just… dislike me. Maybe it’s my beliefs (which lean pro-science and anti-fascism, for what it’s worth) or how I express those views (sometimes bluntly or with a bit of sarcasm). Regardless, I stand by who I am, yet this sense of being unwanted is really starting to weigh on me. It seems like fewer people are engaging with me, both online and in person, and during a year that’s already felt isolating, I feel quite lost.
Signed, Feeling Alone