Purpose of Anxiety

Anxiety is a mental state where a patient feels concern and uneasiness about a life event or situation. This anxiety could lead to stomach disorders or feelings of oppression. While many associate anxiety with negative situations, it also has a purpose.

Historical Perspective

• Søren Kierkegaard, the famous philosopher, once suggested that anxiety might dissipate when an individual consciously exercises self-choice and responsibility. In the latter 1800s Sigmund Freud identified anxiety as a feeling that an individual experiences from an internal struggle between opposing feelings, values and drives. (See reference 1.)

Psychological Survival

• Humans respond to threatening situations by becoming anxious. The anxiety protects the individual by creating an automatic response to take action when an individual faces danger as shown by heightened awareness in times of danger both, in animals and in humans.

Physical Survival

• When a person feels anxiety, their heartrate increases and their eyes dilate. These instinctive reactions prepare an individual's body so they are ready to deal with any present danger.

Social Survival

• When mixing socially, anxiety heightens awareness and sensitivity to others. It helps people get along with others by not appearing too arrogant or domineering. Both introverts and extroverts sometimes feel social anxiety, whether it's meeting people one-on-one, feeling anxiety over developing deep relationships or feeling anxiety when the center of attention.

Mental Preparation

• Anxiety over an event helps an individual prepare for it by analyzing the situation and creating preventative solutions in advance for difficulties that might arise. For instance, a person might face unwanted anxieties by going through relaxation training or by facing fears a small amount at a time. Psychologist Carl Jung felt that patients could use art to work through their anxiety.