Anxiety Meets Awesome

"Why I Started This"

The Real Story Behind AnxiousButAwesome

I'm Chris, and my relationship with anxiety and depression started in my early 20s. Back then, I thought I was the only one who couldn't figure out how to be a functioning adult. I'd wake up exhausted from overthinking the night before. I'd cancel plans because leaving the house felt impossible. I'd smile through conversations while my brain screamed that something was fundamentally wrong with me.

The worst part? I had no language for what I was experiencing. I felt broken, but I didn't know how to explain it—not to friends, not to family, not even to myself.

It took years of therapy, medication adjustments, and a lot of hard days to understand something crucial: I wasn't broken. My brain just works differently. And once I found my people—the ones who got it without me having to explain—everything changed.

That's why I created AnxiousButAwesome. Because I spent too many years feeling alone in rooms full of people. Because "just think positive" never helped anyone. Because mental health deserves better than wellness platitudes printed on cheap shirts.

These designs are for everyone who's ever felt too much and not enough at the same time. For the people who show up even when their brain is telling them to stay home. For anyone who's realized that being anxious doesn't make you less awesome—sometimes it makes you more human.

This isn't just a t-shirt brand. It's a signal to other people like us: "I see you. I get it. You're not alone." It's a reminder that you can be struggling and strong. Anxious and awesome. Both things, at the same time.

If you've ever felt misunderstood, dismissed, or invisible—this is for you. Welcome to a community that gets it. Welcome home.

– Chris, Founder

P.S. 10% of every purchase goes to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) because mental health advocacy isn't just good marketing—it's the whole point.