Do you feel anxious? Do you worry a little bit too much, for your taste? I know you do, I know everyone does, at some point or another, and some more than other. I have had my fair share, but I have come to realize that this emotional state must not be the burden the pharmaceutical world wants to cure for you. 

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological reaction to a situation of stress and has many symptoms:  mild preoccupation, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, panic attacks… Of course there is nothing funny or exciting about these symptoms, but rather than fearing them, we must accept them as what they are: alarm signals triggered by a built-in survival system.

                                        

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Columbia's University professor Simon Wolfe Taylor and Professor Isabelle Arnulf in Paris have studied anxiety in depth and found out in their own ways that anxiety is not necessarily a negative feeling and can be beneficial. Some articles and papers they have written have given me food for thought.

The most anxious you are, the most prepared you will be

For example, according a study by Prof. Arnulf, the students of a university exam who had the most nightmares about it were the ones who turned out to be the most successful! How come? Easily enough, anxiety triggers in the human brain a wide range of response to face the stress of the situation it is facing. Which means that - potentially - the most anxious is the person, the most ready (s)he is to face it because (s)he will evaluate all the possible angles and come with pre-ordained solutions to deal with it.

The only problem is that, culturally, we are taught that to be anxious is to be unhappy. And to be unhappy, in the XXIst century Brave new world, is nothing less than an Orwellian thoughtcrime!

There is nothing to fear but fear itself

Xanax, Valium… The pharmaceutical world has devised countless drugs to tackle the problem of anxiety, and according to Simon Wolfe Taylor, it may have made the problem even worse:

When scientists design pharmacological solutions to anxiety disorders, they primarily target the non­conscious brain system, leaving the subjective feeling of anxiety largely untouched.

So, rather than looking for the cause of anxiety and to deal with the anxiety-inducing situation, the drugs are just getting rid of the symptoms, leaving us totally unprepared to face the situation we feared in the first place and lulling us into a false sense of security. 

Is it really such a favour to do to us? Can't anxiety be a motivator to change the path of our lives, rather than a state to be eradicated at all cost? This is where it is worth looking into the past for old truth.

Anxiety and creativity

One of the first writer and philosopher to speak about anxiety in a meaningful and constructive way was Soren Kierkegaard, as reminds us Simon Wolfe Taylor:

For just over a century—beginning with the 1844 publication of Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety, to the rise of psychopharmacology in the 1950s and ’60s—a group of existential philosophers, theologians, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists developed a distinctive conception of anxiety. Rather than viewing it in purely negative terms as a malady of the soul, as ancient and medieval audiences did, or a pathology to be conquered, as contemporary medicine does, these thinkers saw in anxiety the potential for something constructive.

As a philosopher, Kierkegaard mentioned of course the anxiety of artists, who have to deal constantly with doubts and we have heard about artists (think about Kafka!) for whom self-loathing was almost a sport, kept disparaging their production, to come back at it even stronger the next day:

[…] the proposition that anxiety can be channeled into constructive behavior or activity is surely an idea worth considering—one with the potential to provide comfort and hope to many thousands of patients, especially those whose disorders are comparatively mild. 

The cultural cause of anxiety

It is worth mentioning also that anxiety can also be seen as a the price we had to pay for an advanced society. You very seldom hear about anxiety in first world countries. If you have anxiety, it means that you are better off than 80% of the rest of the human population - so stop whining and face the fear.

What is to be feared is the disappearance of anxiety and the state which is after. Call it as you wish (despair, depression), but as long as there is anxiety, you will keep searching for a solution to your problems and you'll eventually get over it, as says Simon Wolfe Taylor:

Rollo May, a psychologist and the author of 1950’s The Meaning of Anxiety, declared: “One has anxiety because it is possible to create.” Patients, he continued, should be encouraged to recognize that the “presence of anxiety means a conflict is going on, and so long as this is true, a constructive solution is possible.”

In the end, however unpleasant the symptoms of anxiety, we must reject the Western cultural and capitalistic assertion that it can be dealt with easily and efficiently by going to the pharmacy and buying pills. It is, on the contrary, a potentially beneficial opportunity for us to show ourselves at our best and devise rational responses to impending events.

Thanks for reading, and keep smiling :)

Sources and quotes are from:

 https://qz.com/1013901/the-surprising-benefits-of-anxiety/ 

 https://www.thenation.com/article/fear-itself-2/>  

http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/comment-reussir-ne-plus-inquieter-inquieter-pire-est-pas-toujours-venir-dr-david-caronell-editions-hugoetcie-2865186.html