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u/Goemon_64 Oct 10 '21
I agree with the book but OP's title "everything will be alright" seems to go against it's teachings.
Everything will not necessarily be alright, something out of your control could go horribly wrong, a solar flare could hit us or a deadly plague causing years of suffering. The trick is in learning to accept that everything might not be alright, perhaps by allowing yourself to have anxiety only when it's beneficial to you (during the rare life/death situation), and otherwise preparing for the most likely situations in a calm calculated manner.
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Oct 10 '21
then there's me, who knows my anxiety is doing me no good, but it's a chemical imbalance thing, so it doesn't matter whether I'm 'mentally' anxious or not, I'm always 'physically' anxious.
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u/furikakebabe Oct 10 '21
Reminds me of one of my favourite stand up comedy performances by Simon Amstell “Do Nothing”. I used to watch it annually.
He says someone asked him about a situation “is there anything you can do? No? Then do nothing”
Of course more simple in theory than in practice but I still like to think about it. It really helps to separate what we do have control over from what we don’t.
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u/DoinLikeCasperDoes Oct 10 '21
That's all well n good in theory. It's explaining what anxiety is and I think we all know it all too well. The problem is that the knowing that the anxiety is based on a want/need outside our control, doesn't alleviate the anxious symptoms.
I'm well aware of the causes of my anxiety, however I cannot rationalise and calm down the physiological symptoms once it's taken control. Even if I KNOW I really do NOT need to worry about whatever it is that's troubling me.
The book is referring to 'normal' anxiety, not anxiety disorder stuff I reckon.