You May Not Want to Get Rid of Anxiety
You’re about to read a controversial sentence: Although anxiety can be uncomfortable and hard to work through, you don’t actually want to get rid of it. It sounds off-base but it’s true. Anxiety actually serves a purpose in our lives and can even be helpful. Even though it does have its use, we will also talk about some strategies to get you through feeling anxious when it’s too much.
Why Do I Feel Anxious?
Anxiety is a feeling that our ancestors experienced in a different way, but it was more intense and closely related to danger. When a person saw something that was harmful, their body responded in a way to protect them by sending signals of fear or anxiety. Today, we don’t have the same levels of danger that our past generations experienced. We do experience other things, like a big presentation at school or work. That bodily response that our ancestors experienced does still exist when these things come up. It often looks like constant fears or worries, muscle tension, stomachaches or headaches, difficulty concentrating, and more. Does this sound familiar? That’s because these are all symptoms of anxiety.
Of course, there are other reasons why we have anxiety in our lives. We cannot rule out genetic factors, as some people are just more genetically predisposed to experience it than others. There is also research supporting the idea that chemical imbalances in the brain may cause anxiety. We also can experience anxiety based on hard things in our past events. It’s fairly common for people that have had past events of abuse, trauma, or loss to report feeling anxious.
Why Wouldn’t I Want This Feeling to Go Away?
It’s totally reasonable to not want to experience the sweating, racing heartbeat, and constant worry running through your brain. That’s very uncomfortable. However, there can be a few reasons anxiety may not be something you want to completely get rid of:
Feelings are information: Anxiety may be trying to tell you something. Oftentimes, if we’re worried about something, our brains may be telling us we care about it. It’s ok to recognize you’re feeling anxious and to ask why this item is important to you.
You can run into trouble without it: If you lived your life without anxiety, you wouldn’t know to stay away from things that can hurt you. You wouldn’t know not to touch a hot stove if you didn’t feel anxious about getting a burn from it. We actually need the anxiety signal to survive and thrive in our world.
Anxiety may help with performance: A little bit of anxiety about something you want to do well on may help you succeed. For example, it’s totally normal to feel anxious about an upcoming test or presentation. The worry felt may propel you to study more or prepare more so that you can feel confident in your task.
What if the Anxiety is Too Much?
Each of the examples above definitely has a flip side. There is a fine line between helpful anxiety and problematic anxiety. If you feel that the anxiety is constant, interferes with your ability to engage in your life and activities, and it’s difficult to control, these are all signs you may benefit from therapy. A therapist, like our excellent therapists at Become You Therapy, can help you understand more about what brings on the anxiety and how to push back against it. Our ultimate goal is to help you push through the anxiety to get to where you want to be and become your best version of yourself. They can also teach you some coping strategies to help. Here are a couple of my favorites:
The 3-3-3 Rule: This is a grounding technique that aims to help pull you out of your head and into the present through your senses. All you have to do is name three things you can see, name three things you can hear, and move three parts of your body (examples could be moving a wrist, your neck, and stretching your arms). This is helpful because it’s simple, something you can do by yourself, and can interrupt the anxiety cycle.
Challenge Black-and-White Thinking: Anxiety thrives off of trying to make us think that everything is supposed to be a certain way. Oftentimes, this creates unrealistic expectations of ourselves and makes the anxious thoughts more intense. It’s helpful to ask yourself some questions like, “What evidence do I have that this thought is accurate?”, “What evidence do I have that this thought is false?”, and “How much will this thought matter one hour from now, one week from now, or even one year from now?”. These questions can help you shift perspective and challenge the thoughts where they begin.
Anxiety is real. It can be debilitating even for the most grounded of us out in the world. However, it doesn’t mean that anxiety is bad. It has a purpose and can be harnessed for good. At Become You Therapy, we want to help you challenge these things in a way that can help you reach your desired goals. We hope that if you are struggling you feel comfortable reaching out, because we’d love to help you.
