And my last kind of question for you is for people that deal with this or family members in trying to understand and support them, what advice or kind of guidance would you offer for people that are in their younger years based on your own journey?

I would just say for the first part of the anxiety that we talked about initially with getting out of high school and going to college that it just really doesn't matter that much what college you pick, what major you pick, things always seem to have a way of working So, so much time and energy goes into that and I just don't believe that it makes that much of a difference in the end when you actually graduate. What college you went to, what the degree is, it's just, I think too much pressure is put on people to make that just right and just perfect and it just doesn't need to be.

Yeah, there's so much pressure on the little things and what, oh I'm so sad I got to be on this test or I didn't do so well on this type of paper, you know, like we try our best and life goes on and you'll end up probably in the same position as what you would in the next five years.

Exactly, it just doesn't make that much of a difference.

We stress about all these little things that in the big picture don't really matter.

Awesome, well thank you so much for talking with us today and hopping on the mini little podcast we have.

Awesome.

Have a great day.

And can you talk about a time when anxiety kind of felt overwhelming and or when you felt like there wasn't an escape out of it? I mean, you've been through so much that.

I would definitely say my highest anxiety would be right after having kids, two kids, and having to work full time and trying to balance spending time with my family.

I was in an executive level sales job and traveled three days a week. And Sarah's dad is an attorney and worked in Chicago. And so we did not have much time during the week. We had a nanny and just the guilt and the anxiety around not being really with my kids five days a week because I was so busy working. And so was your dad.So it was really difficult to balance that. And then would come the weekends when we'd be crazy trying to spend time with you kids. And the daunting task of knowing we had to go back to work on Monday and run the whole five days again. And then it just makes you wonder what life's all about. And it was just kind of a lot to handle. And the anxiety really kind of got me down during that time frame.

Yeah. And now technology and everything, everyone's moving online so they can enjoy more time with their kids and spend more of their life with their children. And I feel like that's a really beautiful thing.

hat's one of the benefits of COVID, right? Because we were not allowed to work at home back then. And I was in a sales job. And so it wouldn't have worked anyway.

Well, I guess maybe it could have now that I think about it. But no one was working at home then. It was just not a thing. So it was long hours being gone 12 hours a day and commuting and traveling. And so it was just difficult to manage that family work balance.

Yeah.

And it's actually quite a different era of the pandemic under culture.

In sty abe getting in touch and collaborating,

Could you share a little bit of the first time that you realized anxiety was a significant part of your life or when was the first realization that you've had it?

Well, I would say the first time I felt anxiety was typical of most teenagers where you feel anxiety about getting to the right college and picking the right degree. And what am I going to do with my life when I grow up? So I felt a lot of stress and anxiety around that decision. And so that would really be in my late teens and 20s. And then jumping into my 30s, I got married and my anxiety there really evolved around having kids and working and trying to balance life with two full-time jobs.

My husband and I both worked and having two children. And trying to get that work and family life balance. And I found that to be.

Yeah, and especially seeing how your daughters have gone through the almost same thing in the preliminary stages of their lives and going through what you've also been through, I can see how that could be triggering for you. And you understand how to navigate those issues with them. Especially because you've been through years with yourself and with your sisters and your brother and everything.

So yeah, and do you also have it right now? What is the status with it right now?

Yeah, I would say now that I turned 60, now the anxieties run around, how do you have a good balance of money and health? Meaning when you retire, I've already retired, but my husband, Sarah's dad, has not. And you want to be healthy enough to enjoy retirement. But then you don't want to be the person who saves all your money till the end And then you're not healthy, and then you can't enjoy your money. And so it's really difficult to manage that thought process of balancing health and wealth.

Yeah, for sure.

It's definitely a struggle. I have something that I haven't experienced myself,

and even with my sisters, and we're fortunate enough to say that. But coming out of retirement, it's definitely a tricky thing. I didn't even think about that being an issue for you. But yeah, we're seeing it in our family. And it's something that I even have a struggle with especially coming into my 20s. Health is a big topic right now. And it catches up to you quick, so that's a big. Well, and then when we just went through COVID too, right, that's a real trigger for a lot of people when we saw so many people get sick. And then some took vaccines, some didn't. There was a lot of anxiety for people around that. If you chose to get one, if you chose not to get a vaccine, that was certainly, I think, one of the highest anxiety rates in our country at that point.

Yeah, you never know what's right and what's wrong, even if it's FDA approved. It's hard to tell what is the right decision for you going down the road and even grandparents and stuff and people of the older ages. you don't know if you're doing something right.

You don't know if you're doing something too much or too little.

And yeah, I can see that being an issue.

Hi, my name's Janice Gannon. I have been Sarah's mom for just over 20 years, and I'm looking forward to this conversation about anxiety through the years. I'm 60 years old, so I do have some experience throughout six decades of my life.

Yes, so we're just gonna kind of dive right into it.