Color-coded planner. Breathing exercises memorized. Panic attacks catalogued and contained. She's not fine - she's never pretended to be fine - but she's functional, and that has to be enough.
Then junior year starts, and Mina starts slipping.
Mina is her person. The one steady heartbeat in a world that feels too loud. But something is wrong. Long sleeves in August. A laugh that comes half a second too late. Texts that trail off mid-sentence at 2 AM.
Rory recognizes the signs. She's been dreading them.
When the truth lands, it cracks her open: Mina is hurting herself. And suddenly Rory's carefully managed anxiety has a new command center - because if she can just do this right, if she reads enough, scripts the conversations perfectly, monitors closely enough - she can fix this.
She tells herself it's love.
It looks an awful lot like control.
The tighter Rory holds on, the more Mina bristles. Being someone's project isn't the same as being seen. Being watched isn't the same as being safe. And Rory, who can chart everyone else's spiral from a mile away, can't see the shape her own fear is taking until it's too late.
One desperate choice leaves them on opposite sides of a rift neither of them knows how to cross.
Rory is left with the question she never planned for: what do you do when saving someone means letting them go? When being a good friend means trusting them with their own healing, even when it terrifies you? When the person who most needs fixing turns out to be you?
Raw and aching and bracingly honest, The Anxiety Diaries walks the trembling line between helping and hurting, between holding space and taking over - and the quiet, terrifying courage it takes to loosen your grip on someone you love.
The Anxiety Diaries is a tender and emotionally honest coming-of-age story about anxiety, codependency, best-friend betrayal, first love, and learning to trust someone else with their own pain.
Perfect for readers who love YA mental health fiction, books about anxiety and friendship, coming-of-age emotional wellness stories, and fans of Hazel Hill and Tom Thelen.
An unforgettable, heart-cracking coming-of-age story.
