Does everyone feel more, less, or as anxious as I do all the time?
@cdevroe I’ve recently begun to think that anxiety is an evolutionary adaptation that has helped the human species to survive and develop, because it leads us to avoid threats and makes us alert to them. In other words, horrible as it feels, it might be our normal state. I do hope I’m wrong, of course, and I know that it’s not much comfort for me to say so. Sorry to hear you’re going through a bad time.
@artkavanagh I appreciate the thoughts. I'm not going through a hard time. Though I deal with anxiety, much of it is for no reason whatsoever. I have a privileged life, I'm very comfortable, and I'm very grateful. I feel the world we live in gives us unnatural pressures that are both subtle and direct and that many, if not most, of us have a hard time dealing with it. Even if everything looks great from the outside.
@cdevroe Glad to hear you’re not going through a hard time 😄. Yes, I think a generalized feeling of anxiety, without being able to point to a specific reason or cause for it, is consistent with my suggestion that it’s a characteristic that evolved. Other things being equal, anxiety makes us cautious and alert — it doesn’t need to be anxiety about anything in particular!
@cdevroe I hear what you are saying here. I sometimes find myself looking at other people, friends and strangers, and wonder what is going on in their lives behind the smiles? I’m not being morbid, but how are they dealing with the news, uncertainty, personal life, demands that modern life puts on us - both subtle and more obvious. Some are probably doing just fine, but others…I just wonder?