3 Reasons Why Anxiety is Actually Good for You

1. Anxiety can encourage productivity and increase your motivation

Anxiety is a powerful motivator! Anxiety serves as a warning flag pointing towards something that needs our attention, motivating us to find it. Anxiety is a physiological feature; it is caused by the work of our adrenal glands and our sympathetic nervous system. As a deadline for work, school, or life approaches, anxiety can drive you to better prepare for it. You may be more motivated to consider all worst-case scenarios. As the event, conversation, or deadline draws closer, your body’s natural response is often heightened as a result of anxiety. Anxiety can also stem from being afraid of failure. This fear can cause you to dedicate more time and effort into the outcome, creating a positive end result!

Do you have more questions about anxiety? Want to learn more? Anxiety therapy can be incredibly beneficial to your understanding and management of anxiety.

2. Anxiety protects us

Ever wonder why anxiety is sometimes hard to shut off? Anxiety is a primal instinct. It is an innate part of our fight-or-flight response, and it is a natural coping mechanism that our bodies use to deal with stress. Anxiety allows us to react faster in danger and in emergency situations. Anxiety and fear protects us from danger. We feel anxious in situations that are unfamiliar to us. Anxiety can serve as a loud warning that allows us to react quickly to danger, but it also serves as a softer warning. This quiet, background-noise anxiety may appear vague or hard to pinpoint at first, but upon deeper investigation, it may actually be calling attention to problems that you are not fully aware of in your life (think: marriage or relationship problems)! 

3. Anxiety can actually help your relationships

When we experience anxiety, we often feel the need to communicate our thoughts and feelings with others in order to better understand what we are going through. Anxiety can give us direction, heightening our self-awareness. Anxiety actually serves as a tool through which we search for safety, support, and comfort. In doing so, anxiety also increases our ability to be empathetic. We are better able to put ourselves in the shoes of those that we care about because, most likely, we know what it feels like. 

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