Some People Choose Anxiety
Researchers studying highly anxious people were intrigued to find that the more twitchy humans among us don’t necessarily want the sources of our anxiety to be dealt with; we like our high anxiety levels where they are, so back the hell off. It’s free, it’s legal, and it’s an awesome rush.
According to the study, some of us are used to living in a constant state of panic and anything resembling peaceful calm either freaks us out or bores us to tears. Living calmly and peacefully is a lovely, healthy thought, but being naturally amped is difficult to give up. Some of us find great comfort in existing in a highly anxious head space, and some of us get an excellent kick in productivity when we’re going 80 million miles an hour and are right on the edge of losing it.
Caffeine is only necessary (for me) first thing in the morning. I avoid it otherwise. There’s a reason I’ve never ingested a Red Bull: No one wants to watch me dig to the center of the earth using only spoons.
I lived peacefully once. I was calm and had no stress or anxiety from October of 2004 through December of 2005. I was so bored I re-cleaned, re-catalogued, re-archived, re-organized, and re-alphabetized my entire existence.
My dreamy vision of my future (when I can’t take you humans any longer and have to chuck it all) involves a tropical island, books, pens, notebooks, fruit, hammocks, and diving equipment. Just myself and my significant others in paradise. Sounds wonderful, yes? Here’s what would really happen: within a week I’d be eating a tree just to have a new project.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
(tense)
