Good Anxiety
Everyday stressors are pervasive—especially in high schools like Laguna. However, the excited state that anxiety brings can be used for productivity rather than being debilitating. WORDS and ART by DARE FITZPATRICK
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hile stressors are ubiquitous in the society we live in—within school, work environments, etc.—Professor of Neuroscience at New York University, Dr. Wendy Suzuki, explains solutions to coping with anxiety in her book “Good Anxiety.” She explains in this interview how we can use the excited state anxiety brings us for productivity. Q: How would you define Anxiety as the term is used in this book? A: Anxiety is that feeling of fear and worry typically associated with situations of uncertainty. Anxiety is worrying about what’s not immediately in front of your face but what could happen to you, which, of course, has infinite possibilities. Our stress response and defense mechanism deploy almost identically for fear. That is why Anxiety can become so debilitating and overwhelming because it takes advantage of that natural protective circuitry. [Anxiety] is basically masquerading as a real threat to your immediate need, when in fact, it is an imagined possibility that may not come to pass at all.
Q: You say it’s common for people in today’s world to feel out of control with their Anxiety—how does the concept of an external locus of control* relate to Anxiety in this way? A: It has to do with your own feeling of self-efficacy* and power, and that really is exported to the environment where these random, it seems, illogical things have been happening. That is very destabilizing for your general psyche. So, yes, it is very related and is how many people with Anxiety feel— they have no control, can’t predict what’s going on, and therefore the worst may be happening in the next moment. Q: Can you talk about the term ‘stress inoculation’* that you use in the book? A: Stress inoculation are some of my favorite experiments that have been done. They were done in animals, and what they found is that if you give young animals a little bit of moderate stress—this is stress that’s uncomfortable, unpleasant, but it’s stress that you can get through—that that actually inoculates you against further stress.
You build up this vision that ‘yeah, actually I can get through it,’ versus other animals that got no stress at all during that time. Then they’re both subjected to the same kind of stress, and the ones who got intermittent, moderate stress are much better at getting through it. I find it such an empowering way to think about [Anxiety]. Did I get through it? Am I still standing? And if the answer is yes, then you have just been inoculated from stress. Q: In the book, you talk about adaptive vs. maladaptive coping strategies*. What is the difference? A: The most obvious maladaptive coping strategies are [alcoholism]— not only the sleep disruptions you get, but it’s addictive. It can lead you down a pathway that’s very hard to get out of. Same with drugs and food. Food is perhaps slightly more common and equally addictive— just like drinking, that first bite of chocolate cake tastes so good, but over and over, the higher levels of sugar affect your emotional health and your brain health, and so it becomes maladaptive. To distinguish the maladaptive
WORDS TO KNOW EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL: the belief that one’s successes or failures result from external factors beyond their control. SELF-EFFICACY: one’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments. STRESS INOCULATION: a psychotherapy method to prepare subjects for stressful events successfully. MALADAPTIVE COPING STRATEGY: strategies intended to reduce discomfort that increases anxiety. PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM: the “rest and digest” side of the nervous system.
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