Anxiety can show us our Humanity.

Anxiety is a basic human response to the understanding that we are limited in our existence and our ability to influence the world around us. You might say that being anxious about something is an expression of the human instinct to dispel uncertainty and avoid nasty surprises. Anxiety can lead to melancholy and ill health and yet, as an experience viewed differently, your anxious thoughts may actually be a path towards seeing a bigger picture.

The English Philosopher Thomas Hobbes suggested, in Leviathan (1651), that anxiety enriches curiosity:

 “Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things.”

As Humans, we crave predictability. Our idea of how the world around us works combine with stories we tell ourselves about the behaviour and thoughts of others, to help diminish our anxiety. Our basic instincts drive us away from surprises and things we can’t predict. What you feel anxious about illuminates the things that drive you and form who you are. Anxiety unlocks your sacred inner chamber, revealing which existential problems or fears – the ultimate concerns of death, meaning, isolation, freedom – we wish to solve the most. Even in religion, Gods are portrayed as the fount of all knowledge and the rock of certainty – so different to the fearful uncertainty of being a mortal, anxious human.

In the day to day world, our experience of anxiety may not be something we fully come to terms with. Outside of Psychotherapy or Counselling, it is rare to have time to consider what thoughts underpin your sense of self and what is important in your world. Can we ever be certain? Are there things we will never know? What is the nature of me? We build a version or reality that suits our subconscious drives and helps drive away anxiety and yet even the most ardent “Warrior” will admit to nerves or fear from time to time. A moments pause might allow a sliver or doubt to creep in during a presentation. Self enquiry, too, can allow anxiety about our actions, words and thoughts: am I doing this right? What is the right way to act here? What is the right way to do my job? Will they see that I am a good as I know I am?

Some doubts are perfectly natural ways of checking in with yourself and making sure that you maintain perspective. But dwelling on doubts and magnifying them with rumination is just as likely to shrink your world view as protect you. The reality is that if we don’t allow ourselves to question our position in the world and the actions that put us there, we are unable to improve that position and will be stuck in a self limiting spiral of ‘safety’. Deep questions in psychotherapy carry with them a great anxiety about the possibility of the unseen answer. That possibility that what makes us may not be perfect is as unsettling as it can be illuminating. Rather than thinking that we must get things right, allowing imperfection and failure to be part of your life brings a freedom that emotional safety never can.

The 17th century enlightenment thinkers spent thousands of hours and a lifetime of words seeking to understand our relationship with doubt and fear. They connected religious faith with anxiety about the uncertainty of human existence, at a time where so much of the unknown was being brought to light by the new Science and Philosophy.

The renowned Philosopher Rene Descartes wrote in his Meditations (1641):

“I realise that there is never any reliable way of distinguishing being awake from being asleep. This discovery makes me feel dizzy … I feel like someone who is suddenly dropped into a deep whirlpool that tumbles him around.”

This expression of anxiety is so like the modern experience that it might have come from a therapy session. Where Descartes is almost terrified by what he sees as his frailty and flawed understanding, we might work hard to hide our own fear of failure, rejection or sickness. Anxiety as we see it need not be a sign of weakness, but an opportunity to see into ourselves and work to understand what drives us and what holds us back.

Humans are anxious animals. By accepting our own fears and working to understand them rather than be ruled by them, we can allow ourselves peace in an increasingly hectic world.