Thursday 26 May 2022

Go with the flow

Anxiety is seen as something very abnormal that we shouldn't be experien-cing. The assumption is that it needs to be banished or at least greatly reduced. But is that right? We live in an increasingly uncertain world in which the future is far from predictable, so isn't anxiety a rather normal reaction to what's going on around us?

There's climate breakdown, the invasion of Ukraine, the cost of living crisis and the crumbling NHS, just to pick the most obvious problems.

Yet we're told we should be free of anxiety and trundling along happily in our little domestic bubble, not paying too much attention to what's happening in the rest of the world. Just go with the flow and follow your instincts.

But if more and more people are saying they suffer from acute anxiety, doesn't that suggest that anxiety is actually a normal reaction and that calmness and serenity (or whatever is the opposite of anxiety) are not normal at all?

In which case, what needs adjusting is not our individual reactions, which are perfectly healthy, but the world around us that's causing those reactions?

I've been an anxious person for decades, and no matter what I do to lessen the anxiety, it stubbornly persists. And I think it's significant that I wasn't anxious as a child but very happy-go-lucky and carefree. It was only as I got older and learnt more about the wider world that my anxiety developed. Is that really so surprising?

Perhaps we should live with our anxiety as a healthy emotion and not bust a gut trying to get rid of it.

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Five comments failed to appear on my last blog post. Only two comments were missing on this one. Things are improving.

37 comments:

  1. I do think anxiety is a normal reaction to the modern world.

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    1. Colette: It is, isn't it? How could we not be anxious about all the horrors we hear about non-stop?

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  2. Go through world literature and all sorts of writings and you will see that anxiety has always been a part of our existence. Today we speak more about it, persons with high anxiety troubles consult and it is certain that the actual world has nothing to get us calm.
    Hannah

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    1. Hannah: "The actual world has nothing to get us calm". A depressing thought but there's some truth in it. Maybe some indigenous peoples have the secret of a calm and reflective existence but it's barely possible in our modern-day, top-speed, high-pressure environment.

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  3. Normal? Probably. Healthy? Probably not. I think biologically, anxiety is not good for us.

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    1. Bijoux: Not very healthy, I agree, especially if you're prone to the really extreme forms of anxiety like panic attacks and vomiting.

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  4. What disturbs me immeasurably Nick (and I am glad you wrote about this anxiety) is that 99% of all I know are on anti-anxiety medication. I find this truly alarming as they don't have the energy to do anything about any issue. Sedation, fueled by the Big Pharma division of the theocorporatocracy is capitalism's biggest victory methinks.
    XO
    WWW

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  5. Joanne's comment hasn't appeared on the post. She says: "Not much I can get anxious about. It will or it won't and I have very little influence." True enough.

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    1. www: Another version of the liquid cosh perhaps? 99 per cent on medication is a truly alarming figure. Which rather proves my point that anxiety is a normal reaction to what's going on around us.

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  6. Ramana Rajgopaul27 May 2022 at 12:17

    This is a test comment to see if it gets published.

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    1. Ramana, you outwitted the Blogger saboteur!

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  7. Ramana Rajgopaul27 May 2022 at 12:19

    I finally found out how to comment on your blog Nick. I suffered from anxiety at the beginning of the Covid lockdown and my psychiatrist prescribed some supplements which helped in overcoming that problem. Since then, I haven't had the symptoms return.

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    1. Ramana: Oh, you must tell me which miraculous supplements they were!

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    2. Ramana, hi,

      Your comment surprises me since I would have thought that the meditation you do (not least the breathing) would hold anxiety largely at bay.

      U

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    3. Ramana Rajgopaul28 May 2022 at 14:19

      The beginning of the Covid lockdown was quite stressful for me due to some major family issues which took time to resolve. I look at it differently. Had I not been meditating, things would have been worse.

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    4. Ramana: You seem to get a lot of benefit from regular meditation. I tried meditation many years ago but never really got the hang of it.

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  8. Nick, you say we live in an "increasingly uncertain world". Since the day of dawn we have lived in an uncertain world. Think of the days when we thought thunder and lightning meant the gods were displeased with us. How to appease them before pestilence would set in? Sacrifice a virgin or a lamb or something (say, Isaac) at the altar.

    I am happy to hear that you had a largely anxiety free childhood; makes me wonder what led to you feeling anxious later on.

    As an aside, and your post and some of the comments so far touch on this: What constitutes anxiety (in clinical/diagnostic terms) and what is just a normal flight or fight response? Alas, since, these days, there are few tigers and/or bears about so we don't run we make our own ghosts, worries, unnecessary "anxieties". Sitting ducks come to mind.

    I do not doubt that the odd valium/diazepam aka Benzos do have their place. On the whole? Try a brown paper bag or, even better, learn to breathe. Magic. As the thought arises let it pass. Ramana will know what I am talking about.

    U

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    1. Ursula: "As the thought arises let it pass". That is exactly what I try to do, but the wretched thoughts insist on keeping me company.

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  9. New to your blog.. I’m older retired widowed and to top that, I live in the US in a red state with a crazy governor. The world is an absolute mess. Climate change, mass shootings, corrupt politicians, religious fanaticism and anxious crowded unfulfilled people all over the world. Yes it’s normal to feel this way now.

    My only personal solution,besides an occasional Xanax, is to try to look at the long term from long ago and the big picture of our little dot in the universe. Things like history repeats, humans act on emotions not logic, we are basically animals and our place in time is fleeting. It’s either going to fix itself or not and perhaps it all follows a natural time line. We can do some things for sure, but history, human traits and time will will rule. Sometimes for the good and sometimes for evil. We are just along for the ride as it all runs it’s course.
    Anyway those kind of thoughts help me..it’s about perspective and it’s not easy, I admit.

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    1. Mary: I've always resisted taking anti-anxiety drugs or any other kind of drug. I take one pill to lower my blood pressure and that's it. Taking the long-term view is a good approach. As you say, in the long term some things will improve and some things will get worse. Unless we're influential in some way, unfortunately all we can do is let things take their course.

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  10. The trouble with anxiety is that it pops out in different ways - like OCDs.
    I have always been anxious, even as a child. Good days and bad days. I think I have an overactive danger antenna!!
    Sx

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    1. Ms Scarlet: I think that if the world was a friendlier and easier place, there would be less anxiety and less of the extreme forms of anxiety like OCD, panic attacks etc.

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  11. Nick, for comments arriving in your email notification but not appearing, check your spam comments, Blogger is putting perfectly ordinary comments randomly into Spam. They can be released.

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  12. Well, that's most unexpected, an email from someone who I thought couldn't stand me! Anyway, thanks for the advice, but there's absolutely zilch in either my spam folder or my junk email folder. But the problem seems to be resolving itself - only one comment has failed to reach this particular post.

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    1. Most Blogger/Google problems seem to resolve themselves in the end.

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  13. Anxiety is a pretty broad topic. Eh?

    Like you, I had a easy childhood. Most of my troubles were from being pretty spoiled at times. Not everything was roses but I was cared for, educated and not too sheltered.

    As a young adult, I did have a lot of anxiety. The world is a tough place. Now I see anxiety more as a friend in that it prepares me for what I need to deal with. PTSD and Panic disorders are not normal anxiety. I have a lot of sympathy for those who suffer from excessive anxiety.

    Yeah, I can be opinionated.

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    1. Ann: "I see anxiety more as a friend in that it prepares me for what I need to deal with." I think I see anxiety in a similar way. It may be disturbing but it spurs me into thinking and organising.

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  14. Mary (Kirkland): Your comment didn't reach the blog post again. You said: "I have a lot of anxiety as well. Too much to worry about." Indeed. You live in a pretty rough neighbourhood where you have to keep your wits about you!

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  15. I suppose a certain degree of anxiety, just like stress, falls within an acceptable normal state to alert us to situations. Determining when either or both become excessive is the issue. Hans Selye who is considered the father of stress said only when stress became distress was it a problem. I guess we each have to determine when our anxiety has become problematic and exceeds the normal acceptable level. Certainly if measurable health issues are impacted there's little question. The causes of anxiety can be so different for each individual stemming from matters about our self to those about others and issues quite outside of ourselves. I expect addressing them could be different. Perhaps issues of control enter the picture. I think there is much to be said for simple relaxation exercises that involve the whole body with diaphragmatic breathing a good place to start.

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    1. Joared: "Only when stress becomes distress is it a problem." That's a good rule of thumb. Clearly if it develops into OCD or PTSD or panic attacks then medical attention is called for. But there's still this common assumption that anxiety is an individual problem rather than a response to what's going on around us.

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    2. Maybe the anxiety response is our unwarranted or mis-interpretation of what's going on around us.

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    3. Joared: That's possible. In which case there's an awful lot of misinterpretation going on!

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    4. What you said is funny! There's no misinterpretation going on with much of what's happening in our world today, that's for sure. I was thinking of when sometimes we can be anxious about situations with other people in our lives. Then we discover the situation or person's behavior toward us really had nothing to do with us at all.

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    5. Joared: Very true that we can find the behaviour we were worried about actually has no connection with us at all.

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  16. I'm very similar to you, a happy carefree childhood followed by adulthood and anxiety. It's not too bad though, I usually talk to myself about what's causing any particular onset and then work it out.

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    1. Polly: I can get extremely anxious over something relatively trivial, then half an hour later I wonder what all the fuss was about.

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