Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave Gets Real about Her Anxiety and Has a Request for Fellow Sufferers

Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave is letting friends, fans, and followers in on her struggles with anxiety. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills accountability coach wrote a lengthy Instagram post that reveals the depths of her bouts with the issue, reassures fellow sufferers that they're not alone, and asks people to talk about their own experiences with anxiety.

"I’ve lived with anxiety for as long as I can remember," she wrote. "When I rode, horses were the thing that kept it at bay — distractions to help me mask it. Now, being a working wife and mother, I find myself constantly battling the why’s and how’s and what if’s while trying to keep it all together. Some days I wake up and think, 'What if I just kept my feelings and emotions swirling inside me all day?' with the weight of the world firmly planted on my chest. It’s not easy to describe to people this disorder, this pressure that unleashes itself on your body and mind simultaneously while you’re just trying to eat your daily oatmeal, or drive into an underground parking structure, or sleep. To talk about the tears that sometimes come when your mind is racing, trying to figure out how you can control it all, and you realize you cannot. That’s anxiety. And it can be crippling, but I won’t succumb."

She has found a way to keep those crippling feelings in check through exercise, writing, and not hiding those anxious moments.

"So now my workouts, my journaling and being open & vulnerable about my anxiety— those have become my horses. And while some days the anxiety creeps up despite it all, I do my damndest to rein it all in. Because I won’t let it win. I can’t let it win. If you are silently struggling with anxiety, I hope you know you are not alone. And if you’d like to share in the comments how you choose to deal with it, I’d love to hear," she concluded.

Other Bravolebs such as Kathryn Dennis, Kyle Richards, and Hannah Ferrier have been open and honest about their struggles with anxiety.

Kathryn admitted that she felt particularly anxious when she recently appeared on live television for Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, which caused some of her pals and frenemies alike to speculate on her sobriety that night in Part One of the Southern Charm reunion.

Kyle has talked about her anxiety openly on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and has shared how "exercise, exercise, exercise" really helps her deal with it. 

And Hannah turned a bout of anxiety aboard the Below Deck Mediterranean yacht into a teaching lesson for people on how they can help someone who suffers such an attack at work.