by Kai Deniri

Created on: August 16, 2011

"Never turn your back on anxiety.  It should be kept in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed," said the late Hunter S. Thompson.  Well, Thompson said something like that; his quote might have used the word "fear." 

But fear is the undiluted essence of anxiety.  If fear were pure alcohol, anxiety would be cheap beer.  (All of which have medicinal properties that reduce social anxiety when taken in moderation, but may ultimately intensify anxiety if over-used or given in huge doses.)  Therefore, what is true for fear is vaguely true for anxiety.  Keep it in front of you, where you can see it. 

In other words, know yourself.  Know what gives you anxiety, and what levels of anxiety you get from which situations.  This is how we begin to decrease anxiety.  We study ourselves until we plainly see where our anxiety comes from, when it comes, and how much. 

Don't despair if you're anxious "all the time!"  Look closer.  You can't be that anxious when, for example, you are sleeping.  More importantly, know what situations do not give you any anxiety.  Try to spend as much time in those situations as possible, a first, unless they include altered states caused by medications or drug use, because that is no good. 

The idea is to decrease anxiety, not merely delay it.  Spending time in non-anxious environments will accustom you to the wonderful knowledge of how it feels not being anxious.  Grow to like this feeling.  Some people, believe it or not, are anxious because it gives them a kind of gratification even as it debiliatates them, simply because everyone is comforted by what they are used to.  But never fear! 

Spending time free from anxiety can be so delightful that it is not difficult to get used to instead, and then to prefer.  This is very important because anxiety has been linked to virtually every Western health problem that can kill or majorly inconvenience people, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, depression, drug abuse, irritable bowel syndrome, and even herpes outbreaks. 

Decreasing anxiety, for some, is a matter of life or death!  But anxiety can be ok in some situations.  If you are in a hospital waiting room while someone you love is having a baby, and you are not anxious, then you must not care.  Anxiety is only a condition of being on high alert, anticipating something uncertain,

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