How to Deal With Anxiety Without Losing Your Mind
Your anxiety can be a superpower, if you use it right
Anxiety makes me feel uncomfortable
But not in the way you may be thinking.
It isn’t for fear or a mild version of PTSD.
I feel uncomfortable because it feels self-limiting to use a general explanation you find online to sum up something you feel on a personal level.
And what’s worse is that much of what you hear about Anxiety is negative, which sets you up for disaster long before you even experience it.
It isn’t wrong to share experiences with one another, this helps us connect with others and learn from one another.
But we should remind ourselves that our Anxiety is ultimately ours to face.
And so, we need to look beyond a general definition and understand it better
I could hardly put the experience of Anxiety into words until I found this analogy in Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life(and I am paraphrasing the analogy).
If you had to shout into a mic, that sound would travel to a connected speaker, which would then be amplified and sent out for everyone to hear.
But if you had to put the mic relatively close to the same speaker and shout in it then, the sound would be amplified by the speaker and travel back into the mic as well.
The mic will then take this amplified sound and send it back to the speaker, a lot louder than it was before.
This loop will continue and the sound will grow louder until something breaks or blows up.
That’s kind of what Anxiety feels like, right?
Our thoughts make us feel a certain way and that gives way to more thoughts that make us feel worse — like a negative compounding effect, this loop will go on until we break down or maybe even lose our minds.
This analogy may not explain everything about Anxiety, but it does paint a better picture of the details.
And once we understand something better, we can take action
In life, we cannot control that some days are going to be worse than others.
So, like the mic being placed close to the speaker, our thoughts are going to have a greater impact on how we feel about ourselves — this is something we cannot change.
What we can do though is control the thoughts that we think.
That feels difficult at times because we have to watch over ourselves to make sure we’re not getting trapped in some other whirlpool of thoughts and feelings, but it’s necessary that we do this so that we can step back and see what’s influencing our thoughts.
Because there’s always a root cause
If you ever suffered an injury or gotten sick, you will know the different symptoms you feel that make you feel injured or sick, but you will also know that there’s a difference between the symptoms you feel and the root issue.
The symptom may be lower back pain or a bad cough, but the root issue may be weak hip movement or a flu bug.
The symptoms are distracting because that’s where the pain lies, but for any good long-term solution, you have to treat the symptoms whilst also treating the root cause of your issue.
And it kind of works the same for Anxiety — it’s often overlooked because of how terrible it makes us feel, but it’s only the symptom of some deeper issue.
When we look deeper, when we look beyond the mental games we play, we will find some fear, worry or insecurity that’s influencing our thoughts.
And we can’t always stop ourselves from being influenced by them, sometimes it happens without us realizing it, but we can always stop ourselves from making our symptoms worse than they actually are.
We can take a step back and choose a different mental path
Being reasonable when you’re suffocating on your thoughts is not easy, so taking a step back to catch your breath and bring yourself to a calmer state of mind will help you see your Anxiety as one separate part of your life.
This can then help you find what fear, worry or insecurity you’re trying to fix with your thoughts.
- Are you afraid of being alone?
- Are you worried you may lose your job?
- Do you care too much about what others think of you?
Whatever it is for you right now, you need to accept it and the way you feel about it because that is your current reality.
You then need to be reasonable with yourself and figure out what you can control because this will help stop you from trying to use what you can’t control to fix your situation (like what we do when we complain and fall into denial).
Once you see this, you can get yourself to focus more on using what you can control to move forward.
- You can face your fear of being alone by building a relationship with yourself
- You can teach yourself specific skills that will make you irreplaceable at your job or set you up for a better job, or maybe you can even become your own boss
- Instead of looking at yourself through everyone’s eyes, you can build habits to better your self-image and your belief in yourself
I know that some days will feel more difficult than others, but regardless, it is your moral obligation to resist the allure of the dark and impulsive path, and choose to take care of your mental health instead.
Because your peace is your responsibility
There comes a time for us all when we’re tired of losing ourselves to our thoughts compounding and overwhelming us — instead of accepting this to be life, we need to fight that battle within to earn our Peace.
And this may sound a bit weird, but there’s a part of me that also believes that overthinking isn’t all that bad, well the concept of it. Sure, I know it’s often shown in a negative light, but what if we were taught to make use of this and turn it into a skill?
If we were able to think obsessively about the right things, it can help us dedicate our lives to greater things like self-improvement, achieving impossible goals and living a good and fulfilling life.
And yes, there is a line, there is always a line, but if we can be aware of that line and how we apply our ability to think, then this can help us commit ourselves to achieve some sort of greatness for ourselves and maintain our Peace.
This is just my opinion, and I could be wrong, but Anxiety seems to exist whether or not we want it, so maybe, just maybe, there has to be a reason for it — don’t you think?
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ― Marcus Aurelius
Invest in your existence,
René
