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The Paradox Of Anxiety
The paradox of anxiety is that what feels most instinctual and self-protective—escaping from the source of our fears or trying to ablate intolerable anxiety with a drink or a pill—often just reinforces it by teaching us that our fears are too powerful to face. It also primes us to monitor for its return when we are able to find temporary relief, but if we're constantly scanning the environment for threats or our bodies for evidence of fear, we're certain to find it.
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110 reads
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Wanting to Escape the Source of Our Fears
Because excessive anxiety is so visceral, including not only mental panic but physical symptoms including a "nervous stomach," chest discomfort, or trouble breathing, it's often experienced as intolerable. As a result, our natural response isn't to problem-solve, but to avoid—we tend to be more f...
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112 reads
The Power of Exposure
Treating pathological anxiety often requires allowing ourselves to feel anxious. That doesn't mean "white-knuckling" it or subjecting ourselves to terror; it's more about engaging with and confronting our fears "one step at a time" in a safe and therapeutic setting with someone at your side. Thro...
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93 reads
To Be Or Not To Be
Like many psychiatric symptoms, anxiety can be conceptualized along a spectrum that ranges from the normal to the pathological. At the normal end, anxiety represents ...
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168 reads
Key Ideas
Pathological anxiety is defined by its intensity, disproportionality, and functional impact.
When it comes to anxiety, doing what feels most self-protective often just reinforces our fears.
Exposing ourselves to our fears and learning how to tolerate anxiety is the key to its extincti...
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287 reads
Pathological Anxiety
When anxiety becomes pathological, it's often because of its intensity, disproportionality, and functional impact. When anxiety and fear intensify to panic and when worries blossom into disproportional mental ruminations about imagined rather than actual threats, the result is that we often freez...
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129 reads
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Recognize the symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety is a healthy response. When we detect a threat, our bodies respond with a fight-or-flight response to protect us. Our heart beats faster, and we breathe more quickly to get more oxygen to our muscles. We get a dry mouth, and our stomach turns.
Misinterpretation of these bodily sens...
The Source Of Your Anxiety - Day 181
- Anxiety surfaces when we're wanting something outside our control. Getting worked up, getting excited, nervously pacing - these intense, pained, and anxious moments show us at our most futile and servile. Staring at the clock, at the sky - it's as if we all belong to a religious cult that be...
The Paradox of Effort
We usually believe that effort will be draining and that it's better to save our energy for when we really need it. Yet, more often than not, the opposite is the case: when we really use our full effort for something that truly matters to us, we feel more energized, not less.
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