The mental health community in its effort to help people, unfortunately has created some misconceptions. Whereas it is obvious that various forms of anxiety are not generally considered to be a positive, they should not necessarily be considered a negative either. I will elaborate as best I can. In the wild all types of fear have a positive function. I am afraid of the tiger so I will not let him get near me. That is a simple example, but really if you expand on it one can really see that fear is one of the essential ingredients to survival. Now to use the tiger metaphor a bit further lets say that any “perceived” threat to our survival is the tiger. The perceived is in quotes for a reason that I will explain a bit later. So the tiger could be that you have not stored enough food for the winter. That fear would drive you to increase your stores of food. The tiger could be your dwelling does not feel safe enough to survive the storm so you work to make it sturdy. The tiger could be the land you farm seems to be under producing so your fear makes you look for new land. Simply put fear motivates new behaviors to try to ensure survival.
Modern humans rarely have the more obvious threats to their wellbeing that humans had not to long ago, but we still have them. Our job pays the bills so that we may have the resources to feel safe. Our relationships with others also provide reassurance that we will have help to survive. Modern humans have tigers near all the time. They are just not thinking correctly about the situation. So the word perceived comes up now. When we feel fear in any form our brains try to compel us to act. For example I am worried the doors not locked so I am compelled by my fear to get up and make sure the door is locked. Ok that is no big deal, but for some people their behavior does not alleviate the fear. They are compelled to repeat the behavior again. Some people will repeat it over and over. This is what we call OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Now many people have some degree of this issue. It actually can be an asset at times. Double and triple checking to see if the mushrooms are poisonous or how many sponges need to come out of us before the surgery is over are two good examples. So why don’t we openly praise people for this behavior. The answer is that we see how the fear can become misdirected and illogical. The behavior that is repeated often makes not sense or is excessive. The mother following the bus in her car on the first day of school is one example. What possibly can this behavior due. She can stop her child from being teased. She can ensure the bus driver is safe. Her fear for her child compelled her to perform a useless behavior. In fact it took her away from behaviors that actually could be of benefit to her and her family.
Fear and all it variations is a vast subject so I can’t begin to write enough about it. But the key point of this document is to begin an examination of the positives and negatives of fear or anxiety. Lack of enough fear can lead to incorrect behaviors just as much as misdirected and illogical fear can. Each of us must examine how our primitive survival instincts can both be helpful and harmful if not supervised by our good human judgement. So if you deal with anxiety you should not beat yourself up about it, but try to understand it and drive it towards truly healthy behavioral responses. Because really that is why we have it.