top of page

Anxiety - a story to remember

Updated: Nov 4, 2020


My Experience with Free-Floating Anxiety

By Dan A. Cardoza, Master’s Degree in Counseling (M.S.)

Anxiety is a part of life. You can have anxiety when you're not sure about your goals, how to get there or if you're suffering from a mental health condition.


When you or someone regularly feels high levels of anxiety, it might become a medical disorder. Of course, there are many treatments and other things you can consider if anxiety is playing too big of a role in your daily life. Some traditional ways to fight long-term anxiety includes the following:

1. Medication

2. Group or individual therapy

3. Exercise



As a young man, I had anxiety from time to time. At its worst, I would go weeks experiencing moderate to high anxiety. I rarely had anxiety attacks except with moving away from a small town to attend college. I worked through school, so most of my anxiety was related to earning a living and getting good grades. I can remember one particular occasion where everything around me seemed surreal. This was in the middle of a science class. To this day, I’m sure how I stayed seated for the entire session. On another occasion before a final examination, I was waking from sleep with my chest rising and falling and my heart beating so fast, my chest was sore the next day. I was frozen in fear until daybreak. Sleep would never be the same for years.


Somehow, I was able to complete my undergraduate work and graduate with honors. Experiencing episodes of anxiety was hard. I thought to myself, “how am I going to be able to assist others with their own counseling needs, if I am not comfortable in my own skin most of the time?” I decided I wasn’t going to let any anxiety or occasional depression get in my way. Sometimes ongoing anxiety caused some depression while I was a young adult. As you know, depression and anxiety can happen together. I rarely discussed this with friends or relatives, thinking they would not understand or related to me.


With time, and experience, I’ve adjusted to what I call “free-floating anxiety.” This is anxiety that can’t be because of a direct cause, such as job stress, bills, state of the economy, family considerations, etc. Reading about anxiety helped and a mindfulness course was helpful. I guess what I want to say is accepting your anxiety in small waves or a tsunami is worth the effort. It was less work accepting it than trying to outsmart my anxiety. Every chess game I ever played with anxiety, I lost. To me, acceptance was the only way I could move forward and grow.




Dan A. Cardoza has now retired. He has a Master’s Degree in Counseling (M.S.)

His career included working as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and Case Manager




Learn more about mindset & mental wellness coaching


Check out our products



43 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
Join us for your best mental health
Learn what you might be missing 

Thanks for submitting!

bottom of page