America’s Addiction to Worry
Time for Self Diagnosis
Americans love our vices. It’s hard not to pass as many liquor stores as places of worship on the way to work. Every gas station is also a cigarette distributor and casino. Our phones have evolved into pocket-sized dopamine factories ready at a moment’s notice to distract and mesmerize. There are so many cheap ways to satiate our thirst and give into this state of dependency consumerism. We, on some level, know these are negatives and may comment, “Man, that guy always has something to drink,” or “She just can’t live in the real world, always on her phone,” but there is one addiction in America that is even more accessible and for some reason highly encouraged. The hopeless addiction of worry.
Vitamin B6 Deficiency
The CDC has estimated that 10% of Americans may be deficient in vitamin B6, making it one of the most common nutritional deficiencies. Take a guess at what Vitamin B6 does; it mainly impacts the brain, nervous, and immune systems. All very important to overall health, but B6 also very widely attributes to helping the brain combat worry, stress, and anxiety. What does all this information mean? Our society as a whole is more worried in general than the rest of the globe. It means that we are all worrying, all the time. And as is our nature, as Americans, we made it a competition.
Why is staying up into the wee hours of the night for work or school met with applause? Why do we romanticize shows like Suits or Succession, when all they do is worry and plot, only for the world to push them around even more? In the workplace or at school our peers brag about how they can’t fall asleep at night due to their busy minds being too invested in inconsequential thoughts, and they look at us expecting praise and respect. Why? I’m genuinely asking because I don’t know.
“Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.” -Erma Bombeck
Worrying Doesn’t Earn You Anything
Worrying is useless. Tell me one time that you worried about something, and it magically got fixed. It’s just not possible. Worrying is a wedge, getting driven deeper and deeper between yourself and trust; trust in the future, trust in others, and most importantly, trust in yourself. On a subconscious level, when you worry about something that is well within your ability to affect, you are internalizing the message that you do not believe in your own success. It reinforces the idea that the results of your actions are outside your realm of control and that you are incapable of affecting the outcomes of your life.
Worry does not make you better at your job
Whether you are the president, a construction worker, or a student, worrying will not make you any better at the work you do. It will not set you ahead of your peers in any way. You will be so caught up with what happens if you fail that you may miss the present moment, much less, what it feels like to succeed.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller
I said at the beginning of this that we have made worry into a competition, making ourselves more worried than the guy next to us. It makes us seem more invested and in control. It makes us seem like we are fighting for a cause bigger than ourselves. It makes others look to us for answers as well as give us extra space when we need it. “Oh don’t bother him, he has so much on his plate already.” Showing that we care about our work is great and definitely necessary to impress our higher-ups, but that can manifest in many different ways than the outward expression of worry. If you have to convey worry to progress, ask yourself if it’s even worth your time in the first place.
What Can You Eliminate?
What do you have in your life right now that’s taking up the majority of your brain power but the minority of your output? What do you wake up thinking about? What are you dreading? How can you make that thing smaller? What is the root cause of your concern in this area? Are you using worry as a form of status? Why? What is that status giving you that you wouldn’t be getting otherwise? Is it worth it? What would life look like without that person, place or thing?
I believe as Americans we all have a root fear of being idle. We are afraid of looking back on our lives and seeing little to no positive change or impact in our wake. This is a good fear to have. Let it motivate and inspire you to think outside the box and strive to better the lives around you, but as you run away from this fear and towards progress avoid that large pitfall of worry that many of us get trapped in. Worry can make us feel busier and may be backed up by others’ encouragement, but it doesn’t have any output. It’s an energy taxing way to feel good about twiddling your thumbs. Don’t let this be you. Wake up from your worry, eliminate what you can, and make tangible goals to progress towards them.
