The Advantages of Anxiety

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Now, before you go thinking that this is just another post saying that Anxiety is a good thing and it pushes you to do better, please understand that I’m writing this as someone who deals with (at times) crippling levels of Anxiety. I understand the difference between motivational anxiety and an actual Anxiety Disorder with all the distressing, if not disabling problems it can cause. I’m not here to tell you to buck up and get over your issues, I’m here because I’ve dealt with Anxiety long enough to know that along with all the difficulties an Anxiety Disorder can cause, or multiple forms of Anxiety can bring, there are some advantages as well.

Empathy

Did you know that the more money you have the less statistically able you are to feel empathy for other people? It’s almost like a switch in the brain turns off, because people with excess are unable to imagine a world without the security a rich person enjoys. On the flip side of that spectrum is a person who has dealt with so much trauma and general lack in their lives, that they’re unable to meet anyone’s needs besides their own.

A person with an Anxiety Disorder is capable of living in the middle ground.

If you have an Anxiety Disorder you know what it’s like to struggle. You might even be able to spot a person who’s struggling sooner than the rest of the people around you. It’s almost like you grow this sort of antennae that tunes you into when people around you are upset. This comes from your hyper-vigilance (too much adrenaline and cortisol) and possibly some past experiences (traumatic or otherwise).

You might even be able to read people better than what they may want to be read. (I know, AWKWARD- unless you happen to be a skilled poker player as well- just kidding. I’m not trying to tell anyone to go there.) But that just comes from having experienced such strong emotions that we can recognize them welling up in others, even when they’re subtle.

Everyone will have differing levels of ability to deal with other peoples’ emotions, but at least we can empathize with other people’s struggles and approach life with the realization that-

People can only give what they can give.

In some ways it helps to recognize that we’re all human with flaws and struggles, good days and some downright terrible days. With recognition and the appreciation for how hard it is to get through the day doing what other people might say is ‘basic stuff’, we’re more capable of giving others more leeway.

So the next time you think there’s absolutely nothing positive about having Anxiety, just remember that all that hypervigilance can actually be put to use. Whether you’re trying to understand a family member, friend, colleague or the person working the checkout at the grocery store, you have the ability to use your Anxiety Disorder for something practical like understanding the people around you a bit better.

Planning Ahead

If I’m walking into a situation I know is going to blow my Anxiety through the roof, what do I do?

That’s right- I plan for it.

I plan for the worst possible case scenario.
I plan for the best possible case scenario.
And then I tackle everything in between.

It may feel annoying to have all the possibilities running through your head, but there may very well be times where that little Anxious voice inside your head told you to prepare for an outcome (non-threatening, just possible) and you did.

You had that extra water bottle or change of clothes ready to go.
You double-checked the drive time and saw that there was an accident so you course-corrected ahead of time.
You researched safe places to stay when traveling and wound up in a place that made you feel comfortable and that your family or partner appreciated.
You came up with conversation starters in case you had to spend time alone around new people and wound up using one or two so you didn’t feel like you were appearing to be rude just by standing around silently avoiding eye contact with strangers.

Anxiety can even be helpful for handling emergencies or damage control. If you’re used to living with less than ideal circumstances, whenever something goes wrong, it’s like your brain is already hardwired to handle new curveballs, because you’ve already thought of what you’d do in certain situations that might cause ‘normal’ people to freeze up. Catastrophes may feel like your landscape because of the inner turmoil you deal with on a daily basis. Dealing with them is quite possibly just another day, no matter the amount of emotional turmoil involved in any emergency situations you might face. You may not act ‘cool as a cucumber’ but you may have a contingency plan cataloged away somewhere in your thoughts.

Not all plans work out. But with an Anxiety Disorder, if you’re forced to deal with situations that are distressing, chances are you’ve had to come up with a plan to endure whatever challenge you could ever possibly face. With that experience you learn the value of a plan, and over time can learn to expect more realistic outcomes, instead of the worst case version your Anxiety may try to feed you.

Focus

Whenever your Anxiety spikes, it can make it almost impossible to focus on anything else. This inability to get your mind to switch tracks means that you spend time giving an issue or problem, real or perceived, all of your attention. With this, you become familiar with whatever form of Anxiety challenges you. Your triggers become points of interest that you become a sort of self-taught expert in. With intentionality, you can come to understand your triggers and yourself better over time.

And then there’s the version of you once you’ve learned to train your thoughts. Once you’ve learned to train your mind by focusing on what you know is healthy for you, you can become an almost unstoppable force of nature. All of that energy spent in one direction? You can now use it do something useful with all that data you’ve accumulated from time spent reacting to your triggers. No one knows those things like you do, and now you have the ability to master them.

Intuition and Information

This plays into your focus. Anxiety means that in a way you’re almost constantly taking in as much information as possible. This can easily lead to sensory overload, burnout and an Anxiety Spiral.

But, it can also get fed into a memory bank that you can later tap into. This memory bank of information gives you everything you need to know to be even more prepared than what is necessary (thank you Anxiety, but this might be a bit overkill). If some of your Social Anxiety gets fed into by having too much attention drawn to you from arriving late somewhere, you can, over time, develop an almost uncanny ability to know when exactly is the right time to leave to reach your destination just early enough to not cause a ruckus, but also late enough to avoid too much stimulation. Or you might just develop an awesome playlist to help you destimulate while you wait in case you misjudged the timing and got there early.

I know that it might seem more productive to conquer your Anxiety by constantly facing your challenges head on, but if you’ve tried exposure therapy, you’ll know that small, manageable doses, especially ones you choose, can be the most effective ways to build back some form of functionality.

By taking in all that information, you now have the data necessary to make informed decisions about how to manage your Anxiety. You can figure out which tasks to tackle first to build up to the ones that cause you the most Anxiety. With therapy, support and healthy choices with both diet and exercise, you have all the tools at your disposal to take back your life, because you know your limits, and where the line is that you need to push past, and when to push.

Safety

Anxiety is fed into by beliefs that are not in proportion to the stimulus. With this route of thinking, you’ll almost never put yourself, or the people you care about, into an unsafe situation. Granted, there are drawbacks to exercising too much caution: overprotectiveness, agoraphobic tendencies, etc. But, chances are that if you have an Anxiety Disorder, you will most likely be the person you can count on most to keep you safe.

Knowing this- I hope- helps you to try new things. Anxiety has your back in avoiding danger, and you will likely notice way before something could ever go down that there’s even so much as a smidgen of potential harm. So take whatever next step feels doable and try something slightly outside your comfort zone.

Slightly. It’s okay. No need for skinny dipping into a pool of overstimulation or an exposure therapy marathon.

As much as people without mental health disorders will criticize them, comfort zones are the places where healing begins.

Whatever your comfort zone is, I’m sure it involves a safe place with safe people. Maybe with time you’ll find other places or people to devote your energies to when you’re ready for them. Until then, remind yourself that you’re safe now. You’ve made the decisions necessary to protect yourself, or you’re getting to those decisions. You know deep down what those are. You can do this.

Creativity

Go with me on this. I know you’ve been told that Anxiety is like way too much stuff coming in and causing your brain to overload, hyperstimulation, hypervigilance and all that.

Fear is a form of Anxiety that lives within the rational realm. Anxiety is essentially the subconscious misuse of Creativity and Fear. Which leads to the conclusion that Anxiety, Fear and Creativity are all linked to one another in a bizarre combination of conscious and subconscious interactions stemming from a variety of inputs: chemical balances, life experiences, genetics, environment, etc. Anxiety will typically shut down recognizably higher forms of creativity in favor of putting your efforts towards survival, as this is the point of all your highly complicated neurotransmitters.

But what about when dealing with anxiety forces you to seek out creative solutions to avoiding or handling your triggers? That’s when a different form of survival mechanism kicks in. Your creativity will reawaken if it’s seen as a necessary process for your survival.

Creative activities like writing, sculpting, dancing, or playing a musical instrument all have the power to chemically lower your body’s amounts of cortisol and adrenaline. Your body and brain will destimulate and return to a form of ‘normal’ stasis from pursuing these types of activities. While convincing your mind to focus on creative pursuits when you’re in the midst of a full-on panic attack or Anxiety Spiral may be difficult, engaging in something creative (even if for 15 minutes a day) taps into the part of your brain that helps you to go beyond surviving- again, something your brain wants you to do.

Once you’ve harnessed your thoughts and channel them towards Creativity- your superpower of Focus can be engaged and all of that motivation to do something useful or preventative comes out full force. Creativity is the bridge back to reality, where fears are manageable, stress can be reduced, and not everything is the literal end of the world, even if it once seemed that way.

Conclusion

Life isn’t exactly easy with Anxiety, but it isn’t all bad. Once you’ve had it, you can recognize it. Once you can recognize it, you can empathize with it (or other challenges people face) in a way others might not be able to. With Anxiety, you take in a lot of information and with that you can plan more effectively and stay safe. Once you’ve taken the time to harness your thoughts, that hypervigilance from your Anxiety can become a hyperfocus and the ability to come up with creative solutions to help you with your Anxiety struggles that remind your brain that creativity is the key to finding something beyond fear and basic survival.

May God Bless and Keep You.

Claire Evers