Yesterday we talked about recognizing “regular” anxiety in your life. This is anxiety in many forms, triggered by external influences, that all humans experience from time to time. Learning to identify regular anxiety when you feel it can help you in your recovery journey.
But for so many members of our community, this is is a difficult task simply because regular anxiety almost automatically spins out of control, goes off the rails, and becomes the disordered anxious response that is the hallmark of issues like panic disorder, OCD, or agoraphobia.
What is the difference? What is disordered anxiety? Well for our purposes we will define disordered anxiety as anxiety that originates internally with bodily sensations or thoughts that you have learned to interpret as threats over time. This is important. Disordered anxiety is based on interpreting your own body and mind as sources of danger or threat. Why is this so important?
Because when humans experience life stress, we respond physically and mentally to that stress. Sometimes that response is what we might call regular anxiety. Other responses might be anger, despair, disappointment, or fear. In all of those cases, those responses will likely trigger physical responses in our bodies. This is normal and to be expected. Some extra thinking is also bound to happen when under stress, so that is also normal and to be expected.
But when we’ve become conditioned to be on alert for threats originating in our bodies and minds, sensations and thoughts - even those that are normal and expected - can quickly trigger an exaggerated threat response. We get “regular” anxious because of life, then we roll into disordered anxiety territory when that regular anxiety itself becomes a threat that we’ve decided we must respond to .
When this happens, it’s common to misinterpret things by concluding that your nasty co-worker makes you panic. In reality, your nasty co-worker triggers a normal anxiety or anger response in you, which in turn gets interpreted as a threat worthy of panic. I know it might seem like this doesn’t matter, but it does. When we incorrectly declare that the entire world is direct panic trigger, we more readily engage in avoidance and retreat rituals. We see our ourselves as unable to handle any stimulation, sensation, or emotion, and will declare even normal, healthy human reactions to life as strictly off-limits.
This is why understanding this process, and working on recognizing regular anxiety, can be a huge help. We can reframe our situation within this more accurate context, which gives us some room to work in. If you can see your normal responses and understand how they morph into disordered responses, you can work on putting some space between those two things rather than trying to avoid the universe at large because you think it is full of “triggers”.
I’m not implying that this knowledge or understanding will wipe away your anxiety disorder, but it always helps to have a grasp on the principles and mechanics of the process rather than simply being reactive and hoping for specific instructions on how to overcome every specific sensation, thought, fear, and situation.
I just finished reading “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport. I’ve been working for quite a while on being more intentional with my use of social media and electronic devices in general so this book was right up my alley. I found it both theoretically and practically interesting.
Every Tuesday I’ll let you know what I’m currently reading. I read quite a bit on psychology and philosophy, but really you never know what I’ll have in my Kindle or Audible libraries! If you’re on Goodreads and into books, you can follow/friend me over there. Here’s a link to my “currently reading” shelf. I’d love to see what you’re reading and what you recommend.
127. Why Does "Regular" Anxiety Become A Nightmare So Often?