What do you feel when you’re anxious? Lost? Confused? Scared? Overwhelmed?

Most likely all of the above.

But, really, it’s not quite as simple as ‘I feel x, y or z’. The mind fog fostered by anxiety means it can be quite impossible to describe the feelings with words alone. In turn, this can make it incredibly difficult for friends and family to try and help, or to understand what you're going through.

Although once a useful evolutionary tool, our fight or flight instinct has led many people to feel they’ve completely lost control of their day to day life, constantly living in ‘flight’ mode and unable to focus on getting through.

While it's brilliant that society has finally started to become more open to discussing the inhibiting and debilitating effects of mental illness, for many, it still remains a fairly unknown area.

In order to determine what it really feels like to suffer with the condition, Buzzfeed have created a video in which they ask participants to draw how they feel when they are anxious.

The video reveals all the emotions people feel when they are in the midst of an anxiety attack, from wanting to hide themselves away in bed just to feel ‘safe’, to a smiling face which, internally, is brimming with negative thoughts and worries.

All the strings that lead out to form an anxious mind

Watch as people draw what it feels like to suffer from anxiety