Understanding and Adapting to the Spiritual Gift of Anxiety

by M.J. Higby, Contributor | Waking Times

Arthur Somers Roche once said, “Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

If you’ve been affected by anxiety, you not only understand this quote, but you can viscerally feel it. If its owner doesn’t lead the mind, the mind will instead lead. If you’ve been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, your stream of thoughts, untamed as they are, often lead to an ocean of worry that defines your daily existence. Drowning in this ocean of worry, you no doubt crave a vacation on a mental island called peace, even if just for a few minutes.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the U.S. affecting 40 million adults or 18% of the population. According to a study commissioned by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety costs the U.S. 42 billion dollars a year, over one-third of the yearly U.S. psychiatric expenditure. The suffering that it causes each individual is immeasurable. Likely the result of the accompanying stigma, only one-third of those affected seek treatment. This stigma is unfortunate for two reasons. The first is that when balanced, anxiety can be a useful trait, otherwise it would not have survived evolutionary pressures. The second is that when the layers are peeled away, anxiety, as well as other mental disorders, appear to be just as physical as other common diseases that are more “acceptable” to have.

Through evolution, we know that certain traits, if not beneficial to the human race, are typically weeded out. Those of us affected by anxiety have an ability, bordering on telepathy, to feel the emotions of others around us. Our mirror neurons appear to pick up subtleties in others that allow us to feel what the other person is feeling. By extension, this ability causes us to be better empathizers. This in turn makes us better friends and parents. In careers such as medicine, it allows us to become better healers since gaining the belief and trust of patients in a sickly state will, in itself, activate their healing system. Being able to conjure up worst-case scenarios can be useful in the realm of finance whether personal or professional, to minimize risk. The hyper-awareness can help us keep loved ones safe such as kids around a pool. There are countless other examples of how having anxiety can be beneficial. As such, balance, not total suppression should be the goal of treatment.

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