Dear friends,

I've read though this forum patiently, and I am going to do my best to stay empathetic and measured.

If it makes those of you who are anxious feel better, you are not alone. Anxiety is certainly a human condition. In my years I have never met a single person devoid of it, often about things that are fairly meaningless to observers. Feeling anxious and scared of failure is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL. We have all experinced it. If you don't have this experince, please let me know, i'd love to chat.

I taught Organic Chemistry for some years. A notoriously difficult subject, but like so many things, it's nowhere near as hard as people say it is. I would say 90% of people who underachieve in chemistry do so not because of chemistry, but because of their crushing anxiety. With some time and effort, almost everyone can do it. It's building confidence and not letting anxiety ruin your focus.

I have personally spent several years paralyzed with anxiety and struggle with it every day, not about FFXIV, but about other issues. It has made my life worse in many many ways. All my regrests in my exisistance were from either things i was too scared to do or times when i got too anxious to perform. IT took me a while, but this fear and anxiety is the main inhibitor we face and stop us from living up to our potential in the world, but please believe me when i know it is hard.

I'll hit you with the depressing story first. My father, who was a great dad and i love him dearly, lost his job in 2006 or 2007, though something which objectively was not his fault. However, the crushing weight of that blow, coupled with his anxiety to learn new things, his lack of patience and frustration with the learning process, coupled with fear, depressing, and alcoholism, sent him into a place where he really couldn't do much for an extended period of time. In retrospect, my dad was great at his job, great with people, but he struggled with computers and literally no one was willing to hire someone in their 60s who struggled with technology, among some other things. Instead of learning a new skill or deciding to keep trying, my father gave up and drank far too much. Last January, he died slowly and painfully in the ICU.