This week I plan on discussing the topic of anxiety, how it affects us and why it is important to learn to use it rather than fight it. I will share a portion of my book where I experienced anxiety and how I learned to deal with it. It is important for us to realize the truth in our daily lives: anxiety in and of itself is not your enemy. It is our reaction to the naturally occurring phenomenon of anxiety that we are feeling.
Anxiety is that feeling of excitement we often refer to as a fight or flight mechanism. For some, anxiety can become an absolute nuisance and implement a lockdown or paralyzing feeling. However, if properly attended to, anxiety can be assessed and “adapted into.” What I mean by this is when I was feeling anxious it wasn’t because of what was currently happening to me. It wasn’t because I was getting called into another meeting regarding my poor performance. I was aware of my inability to cope with my situation. It was because of my anticipation and fear of the unexpected. It was because I could no longer properly adapt to the rapidly changing environment I was thrust into beyond my control while still trying to process several things in my head to include “what the fuck happened?” Of course, it doesn’t help when you’re given an unlimited supply of pain killers, anti-depressants, sleeping pills and of course lets not forget I drank a lot as well. And my Doctors continued to tell me everything was fine…
As I have publicly expressed, Opioids are like putting a band aid on a hatchet wound. When the bandages are getting drenched with blood rather than stopping the bleeding, the logical answer is not to add more bandages. The logical next step would be use a different approach. Perhaps a thicker bandage? Some clotting solution. Hell, anything is better than insisting on the same action while receiving negative results. The most important thing I have learned about anxiety through my studies and my experiences is that anxiety exists, so we exist. I doubt we would have evolved as far as we have gotten if there wasn’t even that smallest twang fear presents to discipline our wandering mind back into the path of survival.
You’re Welcome. Internet.
