My Anxiety Disorder Ruined My Natural Hair Journey

I knew this and was always carelessly aware of things like this, but as usual, I felt like it would never happen to me. I am young and have my whole life ahead of me. All of that optimistic thinking came crashing down when the doctor gave me some unexpected news.

It was around final exams time in college, and I had a load of work to do in a short amount of time. Not only did I have exams, I had performances to put on as well. On top of that, I was in a toxic relationship.

Never in my six years of being natural have I ever faced so much. I was waiting for my body to collapse, but instead my body took it out on what I loved the most: my long, kinky* curly hair.

I noticed a lot more frequent shedding within two weeks of being bogged down with responsibilities. I didn’t think much of the shedding, but the moment my heart started skipping and having complications (palpitations), I went to the emergency room. There they had diagnosed me with an anxiety disorder.

I had overworked myself and was not getting enough sleep. I did continue my hair routine. Nothing changed about that, but some months passed and the shedding got worse. I ended up doing a second big chop to see if my hair would progress. Sure enough, it did, but it wasn’t as thick as before.

This rung a life lesson bell for me: I need to take care of myself because no one else will. I need to do things that make me happy and that takes a load off of me at the end of the day. Do yoga, indulge in my favorite hobbies, laugh, love, and live!

The point is, a healthier me meant a healthier head of hair and that is the secret to any successful hair journey. We have tackled the issue of anxiety before with regards to dry scalp, I urge you to read that post as well.

Do you suffer from anxiety disorder? How did it affect your hair?