Skip to content
ELIMINATING TOO MUCH ANXIETY CREATES ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS IN OTHER AREAS OF MY LIFE

ELIMINATING TOO MUCH ANXIETY CREATES ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS IN OTHER AREAS OF MY LIFE

Since the age of three I have been receiving fortnightly psychotherapy, and last week I had my 35th birthday. So despite not being a psychologist myself, there has not been a single mental health exercise that I haven’t practiced (over the course of 32 years). There have been many exercises that have been helpful, and an equal amount of other exercises which haven’t worked for me. My therapists have always said to me that each individual experiences anxiety in a different way, and therefore exercises which work perfectly for one won’t necessarily do so for another (or vice versa). I have constantly been assured that this is completely normal.

Though whenever I’m writing my blogs, I talk about the advice and exercises that work best for me, personally. Within my previous blogs I have spoken very much about how reducing my anxiety helps me to get through my daily life. It couldn’t be more true that I need to reduce my anxiety from an extreme level, for a multitude of reasons. However it’s also very important that I don’t (completely) eliminate anxiety from my thoughts and feelings.

It may seem very strange to read that previous sentence. Yet therapists always tell me that anxiety biologically exists for reasons of survival, and it isn’t a negative state of mind to be in (all the time). As a matter of fact I often get given the words of “sometimes you have to allow anxiety to be your friend”! Those words of advice have since proven themselves to be true. Ironically I’ve found that whenever I’ve reached a state of complete calmness, I actually cannot function at all in my daily life.

My own experience of anxiety primarily stems from the emotions of fear, worry, frustration about not understanding things and feelings of low self-worth. If those emotions are in excess, it does of course create a very unhealthy mindset. Yet all four of the emotions I listed above also motivate and enable me to get things done, once they’ve been reduced to a positive level. 

As well, adrenaline has a very important biological purpose. In primitive times (when humans were the animals that we still naturally are) we needed adrenaline to give us the drive, strength and energy to physically fight off life-threatening predators. Fear also gave us the motivation and energy to secure our cave/living area, and do whatever we physically could, regardless of how much laborious work was involved.

In modern times that exact same energy enables me to get my 100K+ books written on time, in addition to finishing all of the homework for my studies, as well turning my general dreams/goals into reality. Without anxiety or adrenaline I just wouldn’t have the motivation to do all of those things. 

I will conclude this by saying that whenever my anxiety is at an excessive level, it absolutely does affect my ability to focus on what needs to be done. With (excessive) worry all of my physical and mental energy gets wasted, by either having meltdowns or unnecessary panic attacks. However in therapy, I do have to be very careful to not release too much anxiety, as that opposite side of the scale does equally disable me in my day-to-day life.

 

 

Next article GROUNDS MY MIND DURING THE MOMENT