A half hour later, with a new schedule and an alarming set of "personal academic benchmarks" to meet, Steve was released back into the wild, feeling a confusing blend of joy and terror, which was often a ticket to a ride on the anxiety roller coaster.

How could she be anxious when everything was so cheerful? Very easily, as it happens. Brain chemistry doesn’t care about how pretty things are.

So much of anxiety was anxiety about having anxiety.

You know how depression lies? Well anxiety is stupid. I did not just say people with anxiety are stupid. No, no. I mean that anxiety itself is stupid. If you asked anxiety what two plus two is, anxiety will think very hard and say "triangle" or "a bag of Fritos" or "a commemorative stamp." Because anxiety doesn't know what anything is. It will try to convince you that things that are totally fine are worthy of dread.