5 ms·
Anxiety as an emotion is very similar to excitement. Sam Harris discusses this a lot. I never got from him what exactly the difference is, but the other day in
by chimi 7y ago
Anxiety as an emotion is very similar to excitement. Sam Harris discusses this a lot. I never got from him what exactly the difference is, but the other day in the car, I felt excited and started really analyzing why.
What I believe now is that the difference between anxiety and excitement is: perception of outcome.
If you have a positive expected outcome, you are excited. If you have a negative expected outcome you are anxious.
The next step, is to convert anxiety into excitement. I'm still working on this part. I think this is where "little victories" come into play. If you have a series of successes that can change your perception of outcome from negative to positive it might work over the long term.
In the short term, "happy thoughts" might work. "You can do it!!" Encouragement. Confidence.
Of course all of this is very new to me, so these are mostly just my hypotheses, but I plan to examine the ideas in more detail and see what I can do with it...
- axaxs 7y agoAnxiety, at least medically speaking, seems to be a loaded word. I've been told I had "anxiety" for some health related symptoms I had experienced, though I feel nothing like excitement nor dread. It's a very strange thought...almost what I might call 'subconscious anxiety'. As in, I don't mind people and am not anti social. But sometimes, in large noisy crowds, would feel lightheaded as if were going to pass out. Never really figured that one out - just wanted to point out that anxiety isn't always just a person thinking negatively.
- UncleOxidant 7y agoAnxiety can definitely be triggered at a subconscious level. I get the dizzy, lightheaded thing as well and and I usually am not initially aware of why. But often, if I can take a step back and mentally assess the situation I can become aware of what the trigger was.
- ianai 7y agoI’m not buying that anxiety is similar to excitement. Maybe in that both can make people act brashly and make shortsighted judgements. But the effect on a person at even a hormonal level is different. I doubt excitement releases the same inflammatory response that anxiety does. Anxiety also reinforces itself while excitement progressively requires newer stimuli to produce further excitement with a decreasing effect.
- zen22334 7y agoI started doing push-ups every morning as part of a plan to do some form of exercise with my upper body. Noticed at some point it has been a long time I felt anxiety. Not sure if there is a link, but starting to think so.