REPOST: ADDICTED TO ANXIETY?!

This is a subject that is somewhat difficult to grapple with. When I propose to people I see for therapy that their anxiety is something they're attached to - out of familiarity, for the adrenaline rush, as a distraction from other feelings - the usual responses go something like: "But I hate feeling like this!" It's not pleasurable at all!"

Nonetheless, an addiction to anxiety is very real, and a very real dilemma for a lot of people, just like an addiction to intensity is. (See this very good Pathwork Guide Lecture on that subject)

Here's a link to an article on this very subject by Casey Schwartz, a graduate of Brown University with a Masters Degree in psychodynamic neuroscience from University College London.

And here's some excerpts:

"Considering that anxiety makes your palms sweat, your heart race, your stomach turn somersaults, and your brain seize up like a car with a busted transmission, it's no wonder people reach for the Xanax to vanquish it. But in a surprise, researchers who study emotion regulation—how we cope, or fail to cope, with the daily swirl of feelings—are discovering that many anxious people are bound and determined (though not always consciously) to cultivate anxiety. The reason, studies suggest, is that for some people anxiety boosts cognitive performance, while for others it actually feels comforting."

“Some people get addicted to feeling anxious because that’s the state that they’ve always known. If they feel a sense of calm, they get bored.”

"Wanting to feel an emotion is not the same thing as enjoying that emotion, points out neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan, who discovered that wanting and liking are mediated by two distinct sets of neurotransmitters."

Hey, folks, try to relax!