I Found Out I Have Anxiety Today

I found out I have anxiety today.

This sentence is both fact and fiction to me.

How does one “find out” they have anxiety?

Can you really find something that has been there all along,

Is the acknowledgement of a truth akin to Columbus-like discovery?

Hasn’t anxiety gleamed in each shard of glass where I’ve sought validation?

Sat cross-legged in the middle of my chest like stone sunk to riverbed?

Has it not made me stranger amongst my closest friends

And permanent guard against phantom foes?

These ears,

Who have heard my silent shriek

So long it has dimmed to a dull throbbing in my temples,

They ring with the shrill siren of diagnosis,

Of a name to a fearful face.

I found out I have anxiety today.

This sentence is both fact and fiction,

Fear and freedom.

A name for a foe I have fought for so long,

She is almost a friend.