Anxiety: Can It Really Help Us?

The Time magazine headline splashed across the cover of the Dec. 5 edition snatched me to attention. “Why Anxiety is Good For You,” the cover screamed.

The gist of the article is this: Anxiety can sharpen our senses and motivate us to move faster. Or it can paralyze us.

So why write about anxiety in a blog about depression? I suffer from both, and usually bouts with depression come when I am or have been anxious about something.

Distinguishing Between the Types of Anxiety

The in-depth Time article goes through the history of anxiety, reaching back to the 5th Century B.C., when Hippocrates said good health is the balance of four “humors,” and then to 1895, when Freud made a distinction between “real” anxiety and “neurotic anxiety.”

My understanding of real anxiety is it’s the kind of fear one would feel if a black bear showed up in the back yard. Neurotic anxiety is the type that tortures some of us who worry about every little thing, even things that will never happen in a million years.

It’s interesting that a chart in the article shows us that our performance can rapidly increase with the onset of stress. If we manage it properly, it can motivate us and help us work faster and more effectively. The problem happens when the anxiety reaches a level of quickly diminishing returns. Then it becomes harder to concentrate and perform, resulting in eventual exhaustion and almost certain paralysis.

Managing Anxiety

So how do we manage that stress and rein in that anxiety? My therapist has taught me some cognitive behavioral techniques to help slow it down. She tells me not to jerk it back but gently bind it. I try and do that by asking myself some basic questions. Is what I’m worried about really going to happen? Even if it does happen—and often times it doesn’t—what would the consequences be?

Another therapist I saw years ago put it this way: Play out the twisted fantasy in your head until its logical conclusion. For example, if I’m worried I might screw something up at work, what would really happen? Would I really get fired or publicly humiliated over one little mistake? The answer is usually an emphatic no!
Dr. Oz writes a sidebar feature that accompanies the Time article. Since he’s an expert and clearly am not, let me offer a few of his tips.

• If you are worried about an event, meeting or presentation, get there early. It will give you mind time to acclimate.
• Eat a balanced diet, loading up on omega 3 fatty acids. Stay away from junk food.
• Learn to recognize your stress triggers and figure out how to avoid them (a good example for me personally is procrastination, another is having a hard time saying “no” to an invitation).
• Exercise. Surprise! Exercise is good for anxiety as well.
It’s as simple as that. The hard part is actually sticking to those tips for good mental health.