To clarify, the article started sharing the legit and healthy expression of anxiety. It's socially nessesary. What I'm point out is that there is legit bullshit anxiety because of a maladaptive risk homeostasis that can be recalibrated. It's a tale as old as time as the stoics 2000 years ago pointed out.
Michael, Thanks! I needed this in a very bad way. I needed to hear about BS anxiety because I suffer from it (greatly) in my new job. I have been journaling, reading, thinking about BS anxiety for the past four weeks. Today I feel calm. I prayed at the temple and asked for God’s blessing. Then I read your article. Something in me changed today. I hope it’s lasting. Thanks!
That's awesome to hear and I'm glad you're working through it. I've dealt with something similar in the past. It takes a constant eye on calibration for me to not slip back in.
What an awesome term - bullshit anxiety. Saved this one so I can come back and read your other posts that you referenced toward the end. Good shit brother.
This was comprehensively excellent. One thing I was shocked to learned in my evo psych reading is that women apparently have evolved reasons to be more anxious because we have to work harder to stay alive and keep children from harm. Once I learned that the statistics made far far more sense.
Right? Women are significantly more vulnerable in most dimensions, and especially while childbearing. Also, fun fact, hormonal birth control tricks the body into thinking that it's pregnant.... All. The. Time. This makes their brains artificially believe they are the most vulnerable and spikes anxiety. So, with millions of women on birth control, is it any wonder we have anxiety?
I haven’t gone deep into the birth control thing yet but I believe it. My problem is idk what to do instead, particularly because my partner is ambivalent about children. I am quite sure my decades on it have completely altered my brain, and I’ve been thinking about coming off it. I didn’t know about the thinking I’m pregnant thing; that’s insane.
This article feels long overdue. I've often noticed how anxiety is experienced differently across generations. I grew up in the 1980s, surrounded by the threat of drive-by shootings and gang violence. Sometimes I wonder how many of today’s young people, who grapple with high levels of anxiety, would have coped with the world I knew growing up. Then again, I think about whether my own generation could have handled the horrors of something like World War II. It seems that anxiety is shaped as much by the times we live in as by the minds that experience it.
Or whether you grew up chiller because you were surrounded by that threat? In WWII, they anticipated mental health would collapse in the Battle of Britain, but even in the horrors of nightly bombing, I've read mental health IMPROVED!
This is precisely why utopia should be reached for but never achieved. Humanity as a species needs struggle, challenge and yes hardship in order to grow. Without it I am not sure we would know what to do with ourselves. What does that dog do when it actually catches the mail truck?
Excellent post, as always. In addition to the pharmaceutical and psychological therapy industries profiting from BS anxiety, I would add social media influencer ms to the mix, especially those who trade in perpetrating hoaxes and conspiracy theories. Starting with Rush Limbaugh, then Alex Jones and his ilk, and dozens of others now plaguing our social media sphere.
I'm calling BS here! I think that trivializing anxiety in this manner would be an offense to all those who have to deal with this illness.
To clarify, the article started sharing the legit and healthy expression of anxiety. It's socially nessesary. What I'm point out is that there is legit bullshit anxiety because of a maladaptive risk homeostasis that can be recalibrated. It's a tale as old as time as the stoics 2000 years ago pointed out.
Michael, Thanks! I needed this in a very bad way. I needed to hear about BS anxiety because I suffer from it (greatly) in my new job. I have been journaling, reading, thinking about BS anxiety for the past four weeks. Today I feel calm. I prayed at the temple and asked for God’s blessing. Then I read your article. Something in me changed today. I hope it’s lasting. Thanks!
That's awesome to hear and I'm glad you're working through it. I've dealt with something similar in the past. It takes a constant eye on calibration for me to not slip back in.
Bullshit anxiety. A new addition to the DSM 5
Good idea!
What an awesome term - bullshit anxiety. Saved this one so I can come back and read your other posts that you referenced toward the end. Good shit brother.
Awesome. I'm enjoying your feed as well. Lots of good synergy.
This was comprehensively excellent. One thing I was shocked to learned in my evo psych reading is that women apparently have evolved reasons to be more anxious because we have to work harder to stay alive and keep children from harm. Once I learned that the statistics made far far more sense.
Right? Women are significantly more vulnerable in most dimensions, and especially while childbearing. Also, fun fact, hormonal birth control tricks the body into thinking that it's pregnant.... All. The. Time. This makes their brains artificially believe they are the most vulnerable and spikes anxiety. So, with millions of women on birth control, is it any wonder we have anxiety?
I haven’t gone deep into the birth control thing yet but I believe it. My problem is idk what to do instead, particularly because my partner is ambivalent about children. I am quite sure my decades on it have completely altered my brain, and I’ve been thinking about coming off it. I didn’t know about the thinking I’m pregnant thing; that’s insane.
We explored more here about deleting the cycle. The clip in there from comedian Taylor Tomlinson about birth control is worth the watch!
https://www.polymathicbeing.com/p/breaking-the-cycle
This article feels long overdue. I've often noticed how anxiety is experienced differently across generations. I grew up in the 1980s, surrounded by the threat of drive-by shootings and gang violence. Sometimes I wonder how many of today’s young people, who grapple with high levels of anxiety, would have coped with the world I knew growing up. Then again, I think about whether my own generation could have handled the horrors of something like World War II. It seems that anxiety is shaped as much by the times we live in as by the minds that experience it.
Or whether you grew up chiller because you were surrounded by that threat? In WWII, they anticipated mental health would collapse in the Battle of Britain, but even in the horrors of nightly bombing, I've read mental health IMPROVED!
This is precisely why utopia should be reached for but never achieved. Humanity as a species needs struggle, challenge and yes hardship in order to grow. Without it I am not sure we would know what to do with ourselves. What does that dog do when it actually catches the mail truck?
Sounds like the Matrix huh?
Oh goodness, now I am rereading my words in the voice of Mr Smith lol.
Haha. I’m sure you do it justice!
Excellent post, as always. In addition to the pharmaceutical and psychological therapy industries profiting from BS anxiety, I would add social media influencer ms to the mix, especially those who trade in perpetrating hoaxes and conspiracy theories. Starting with Rush Limbaugh, then Alex Jones and his ilk, and dozens of others now plaguing our social media sphere.
Oh 100% That's the Fear Porn and Algowhoring we've explored before. They're just feeding the stuff that stokes anxiety for certain.