How do you explain anxiety to someone who's never suffered from it?

[LozzyGirl]

The title pretty much says it all.
Basically my boyfriend is having a rough time coping with me and my anxiety. I suffer from severe social anxiety disorder and struggle with very basic things, such as going to the shop on my own. Recently my anxiety took a turn for the worse and he's struggling to deal with it, and seems to think that I'm not even trying, he doesn't understand that at the moment with how bad it is, the majority of the trying takes place in my head. So, how can I explain it to him, in a way he'll understand? I hate feeling like I'm a burden on him. I just feel like at the moment no one can really cope with me.

[dbus-daemon]

I would personally say it's like a very, very thick black cloud that follows you around. It's elusive and tenuous but at the same time it is suffocating and oppressive and it envelops you when you are least suspecting it.

You can't see anything except a pitch black fog, even your own house is a terrifying hell-hole beyond your worst nightmares and you can't even breathe properly. It is a thick, suffocating black fog that blinds and terrifies. It's invisible to everyone except it's victim.

Even when you aren't at that moment anxious, it's tendrils cling to you and haunt your every moment wherever you go. Even on the warmest and brightest day, it's cold and damp icy fingers are at your throat ready to strangle and suffocate you at any moment.

I don't know if that's any help or whether I'm just describing a Victorian London pea-souper. I suppose that's what it's like - it stifles, paralyses and terrifies wherever it goes and there is no escape from it.

[mat]

My ex gf and i had this talk before! In my opinion you can't describe it, you just describe how it sucks for you.. but. I never had them then. As I get older i get them pretty badly and I can just say Its pretty hard to explain.