About

Welcome to Anxiety is an art performance series founded by Amanda in Orlando, Florida in April of 2014.

Welcome to Anxiety was born from a need to vent my feelings and heal. I had recently publicly shared my writing that talked about my mother’s death and my mental health; and this public acknowledge pushed me into a journey of growth and change and mental health counseling. I performed the first Welcome to Anxiety event as a chronological retelling of my journey with anxiety, panic, and OCD infused with the story of my mother’s illness and her death. It was a cathartic experience with around 60 audience members watching as I purged my soul of all the things that were either hidden or openly hurting me. I was surprised by the number of people who spoke to me about feeling a connection to the material or shared their own mental health stories with me. This reaction sparked the growth of Welcome to Anxiety from a one-time show to an art performance series that creates a stage for people to share their experiences with mental health issues and simply what it means to be a human. Performers range from musicians to spoke word artists to comedians to visual artists and even a clown and dancer. Welcome to Anxiety shines a light on the human experience and challenges performers and audience members to use their voice to speak their truths and to bear witness to the stories of others.