The inexorable logic of this disease metaphor requires us to take it even one step further – like other illnesses, from infectious diseases to cancers, until we have suppressed anxiety, we cannot be mentally healthy, just as the mere presence of a cancerous cell means that we're sick. Yet, it is only anxiety disorders – when extreme anxiety and our attempts to cope with it interfere with our daily lives – that are recognised as mental health conditions. The emotion of anxiety, in contrast, should be considered healthy and normal – and even beneficial. It is a way of thinking that has led us to perceive daily anxieties as malfunctions to fix. While anxiety disorders can be paralysing, the widespread use of the term anxiety to mean a general ill-feeling is problematic because it means we accept two key fallacies: (a) experiencing anxiety is dangerous and destructive and (b) the solution to its pain is to prevent or eradicate it. Far from treating anxiety as a potential ally, we treat it like an enemy howling at the gates. Yet, evolutionary theory and research have not trickled down into the public consciousness – or into that of most medical professionals. That's why, from the perspective of evolutionary theory, anxiety isn't destructive. Anxiety also activates our drives for reward and social connection, impelling us to work for what we care about, connect with others, and be more productive. Anxiety is thus more than the "fear circuitry" of the brain. When we're anxious, not only are we more creative and innovative, but our brains respond with greater focus and efficiency when we face the unpredictable. I propose a new, more helpful and hopeful approach to understanding and living with anxiety in the 21st Century – to use it to your advantage. While they certainly can help individuals, why have these solutions failed to reduce the scale of the problem so spectacularly?Īs I put forward in my book, Future Tense, one reason for this failure is that mental health professionals, myself included, have unintentionally misled people about the nature of anxiety in the past – a misunderstanding that has harmed us. Yet, there are dozens of validated therapies, 30 different anti-anxiety medications, hundreds of excellent self-help books, and thousands of rigorous scientific studies. Rates of these disorders, especially among the young, continue to rise, as they have been for well over two decades. Hundreds of millions of people across the world will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Then there are anxiety disorders – they are the most common of the mental health diagnoses, more common than depression and addiction. Too often, the mere use of it casts these experiences in a negative light, infusing them with threat and a touch of the not-quite-right. The word has become ubiquitous and absorbed meaning, amoeba-like, to encompass everything from dread to pleasant anticipation. It has usurped stress as our language placeholder for feeling uncomfortable – anxious about giving a presentation, about going on a blind date, about starting a new job. Outside of medical diagnoses, the word also seems to have slipped into our vernacular. As much as 31% of the US population will experience an anxiety disorder at one point in their lives, which can range from generalised anxiety disorder to panic disorder and social anxiety disorder – which is one of the most common types. Anxiety is on our minds, with good reason. Google Trends shows that searches for the word anxiety have increased over 300% since 2004. Today, we seem to be living in the age of anxiety. How is your chemotherapy going? Pretty stressful, but I'm managing. How's your wedding planning? Oh it's great, but I'm stressed. When I was growing up in the 1980s, stress was the go-to shorthand for emotional discomfort. However, for many people anxiety can be suffocating, and has become synonymous with feeling bad. I believe that anxiety can be a tool to help us to cope with the challenges that life throws at us. Knowing that the future was uncertain but that my actions could influence the outcome, my anxiety helped me to function in what otherwise might have felt like a hopeless situation. I understood that the outcome might not be good, but I also knew that a positive outcome was possible if I could provide the best care for him.Īt a time like that, it was hard to focus on those positives, but I learned that I could use my anxiety to keep me energised. He required open-heart surgery and I felt overwhelming uncertainty for what the future might hold. When my son was born with a congenital heart condition, like any parent, I felt lost.
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