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Why do we get anxiety?
When we think of anxiety, thoughts of gratitude and compassion aren’t often the first thoughts to come to mind. And the words “benefits” and “anxiety” being in the same sentence might seem even more foreign.
Instead, we may view anxiety as a nuisance, something that is embarrassing, or something that is ruining our lives. And although the symptoms of anxiety may have negative impacts on our lives, it’s still important to understand that anxiety serves a purpose. This post serves as a guide to first validate your anxiety symptoms, while also acknowledging that anxiety is an important part of the human condition: survival.
5 Reasons We Have Anxiety: A Look Back At Our Ancestors
Trauma Therapy
1. Survival Response
If our primal ancestors didn’t experience anxiety, we wouldn’t be here today. How do I put this lightly…If our ancestors didn’t experience a sensation that alerted them to danger, they would have all died. Bleak, I know, but it’s true. Here’s why:
Anxiety is a survival response that triggers the “fight or flight” response to danger. Anxiety prepares us to react to threatening situations to ensure our safety. Our primal ancestor’s ability to sense danger and respond effectively to their anxiety increased their chances of survival. For us today, anxiety continues to protect us by increasing our awareness of real and perceived dangers and to act with caution.
2. Increased Alertness
Have you ever experienced anxiety and noticed that you go into a type of “tunnel vision”? Believe it or not, there is a purpose to this! Anxiety sharpens our focus and attention and literally gives us “tunnel vision” so that we can focus only on the important details that will help us stay safe.
When our bodies detect a threat, it releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones may come on strong, and increase our alertness to the environment and sensory perceptions (aka “tunnel vision”) to help us detect cues from the environment more efficiently. This hypervigilance helps us anticipate and respond to threats in the environment, and served as a purpose to help primal humans adapt to ever changing environments.
3. Assessing for Risk
I promise I’ll spare you the physiological lecture, but stick with me for a bit. Anxiety activates the brain’s amygdala (the part of our brain that processes emotions and senses) and helps us link current emotional experiences with past memories by activating the hippocampus (part of the brain involved with learning and memory).
By activating the amygdala, anxiety functions as a way to heighten our ability to assess potential threats and weigh out the costs and benefits of the different choices we have. Risk assessment was extremely helpful for early human development when navigating new experiences, challenges, and uncertain environments. These parts of our brain work fast to help us evaluate the risks, and facilitate decision making skills to reduce the likelihood of harm.
4. Learning and Memory
When we face stressful or anxious situations, the brain and body actively encode past memories associated with these events. In the past, this was very helpful, as humans would feel anxiety in certain parts of their body that were triggered or felt familiar to previous unsafe situations. By these memories being stored in different parts of the brain and body, anxiety and the effects of trauma work to help to avoid similar threats in the future.
5. Social Acceptance
It may seem surprising to learn that anxiety actually helped humans with social acceptance rather than isolation or abandonment. Humans are naturally social creatures, and our ancestors needed social communities to thrive. Anxiety helped foster group cohesion by encouraging them to engage in cooperation, protective behaviors, and support for another.
When shared in a group, anxiety produces that “tunnel vision” and focuses only on what is important, including empathy, effective and open communication, and collaboration with others. This helped early humans strengthen their social circles, enhanced the ability to cooperate with others and learn new skills, and ensure collective survival.
Why Anxiety is Necessary for Survival in Modern Times
While it may seem absolutely bonkers to view anxiety as beneficial when we may be suffering with its symptoms, understanding its original function can lead to a more understanding and appreciation for its role in human survival. But you may be asking yourself, “OK…so what about IN MODERN TIMES, when we’re not threatened by being eaten by wild animals everyday?”
Anxiety is like a human “alarm system” that alerts us to real (and perceived) threats.
It is our body’s way of signaling potential danger, preparing our nervous system for our fight-or-flight responses. For example, in threatening situations, anxiety heightens our senses, sharpens our focus, and increases our heart rate. This heightened state of alertness allows us to respond quickly to threats, helping us stay safe.
It Motivates Us
Today, anxiety also motivates us to take necessary action. Similar to how stress can act as a motivator, anxiety pushes us to plan ahead, anticipate potential problems, and take steps to avoid or minimize risks. This proactive approach ensures our preparedness for various challenges that may come our way. For example, anxiety may lead an individual to being prepared during a job interview, or freak someone out enough to go to the doctor for that weird mole on their leg.
It Encourages Us to Be Careful
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t come without imperfections. Excessive anxiety can be unhelpful and cloud judgment (I think I can safely say we have all had situations where we spent wayyyy too long weighing out the pros and cons and imagining every single possible detail of a situation), but those annoying symptoms are there to help us stay safe. Anxiety encourages us to be careful, ask for help if and when we need it, and helps us weigh out the consequences of our actions. The intention of anxiety is to always keep you safe.
While chronic or excessive anxiety can be debilitating and require attention from a mental health professional, it is important to recognize that anxiety in and of itself serves a crucial purpose. It is a normal and necessary component of the human experience. Understanding anxiety’s role in survival allows us to change our view and relationship with our own anxiety symptoms.
How Understanding Anxiety Helps Us Manage Symptoms
Understanding our anxiety is a crucial step in reducing its symptoms. When we gain insight and awareness into the nature of anxiety, we can develop self-compassion and understanding, less self-judgment, and learn effective strategies to manage and diminish its impact on our lives.
When we learn that anxiety is a natural physiological and psychological response, we also learn that it’s something that is in our bodies (whether we like it or not!). Accepting that this is a stress response that lives in the body can help us feel less anxious, less shame, less embarrassed, and less scared of the anxiety symptoms itself. The awareness helps us identify when we are experiencing anxiety with curiosity rather than self- judgment, making it easier to label what is going on in our bodies.
Therapy can help individuals understand how anxiety helps us identify triggers and patterns from the past that contribute to our anxious thoughts and feelings in the present. When we become aware of the situations, thoughts, or beliefs that cause anxiety, we gain the ability to recognize them, validate them, and reframe them. An anxiety therapist can help you with self-reflection, self-compassion and understanding, coping skills, and cognitive restructuring to help reduce the intensity and frequency of anxiety symptoms.
Taking control of our triggers empowers us to respond differently to our anxiety symptoms. The anxiety symptoms feel less scary. Less mysterious. Less shameful.
When we see anxiety as only negative or bad, then we see our own symptoms that come from within our bodies as negative or bad. How can we feel safe and secure in our bodies if we believe our own internal symptoms are unsafe? How can we feel safe if we are registering something “wrong” from within?
As annoying and sometimes debilitating as they can be, reminding ourselves that our anxiety symptoms are meant to literally keep us safe can help us feel safer and more comfortable in our bodies. Having anxiety is one thing…but having anxiety about anxiety causes more harm than good.
Anxiety Therapist Los Angeles
Finding a therapist in Los Angeles can be overwhelming, especially when you have anxiety. If you need anxiety treatment and are interested in therapy, contact me today for a free consultation. I help you understand why you have anxiety, what anxiety is, and how to manage anxiety symptoms and live a life where anxiety doesn’t control you. Take control of your anxiety with anxiety therapy in Los Angeles.
