 Have you ever gotten really anxious about a thing that you think is going to make you really anxious? Well, that's called anticipatory anxiety, and in the anxiety disorder community, it's incredibly common. For a non-anxious person that's facing a life challenge, like maybe a big exam at a university or a job interview, it would be normal to have some anxiety over that, to anticipate it, to be nervous about it, maybe even a little afraid. But for an anxious person who's dealing with an anxiety disorder, they are not so much afraid of the event itself, but how they're going to feel at that event. So if anxiety is a state of being afraid, anxiety disorder is about being afraid of being afraid, and anticipatory anxiety is about being afraid of being afraid of being afraid. So the wedding isn't the thing. The exam at your university isn't the thing. The job interview isn't the thing. You get nervous because you think you're going to be nervous, and you're afraid of how you feel in those situations. So if this is you, know that you're not alone. It's really common, and there are ways to deal with that.