SARAH WILSON
author of First, We Make The Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety
“Creatives may credit their anxiety as the thing that sparks their inspired contribution to life”
What if we chose to look at anxiety differently? For centuries, anxiety has been viewed as a disorder to be stamped out with medication or other “fixes”. At best, it’s discussed as a beast that can be “managed”. But after three decades of living with the full Chinese buffet of neurotic flavours (obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar among them), I’ve found such an approach dissatisfying. Psychiatrists and drugs have been part of my experience (I’ve tried most, found many helpful, but ultimately chose to “go it alone”), but I’ve wondered if we could, instead, recast the beast as beautiful. As something we can thrive with, not just live with. Research shows that hypersensitive types make great leaders. And anthropologists believe shaman in countless cultures have displayed behaviour akin to mental illness. There’s also this: artists and creatives are said to be more anxious than other people. Such nervous folk may even credit their condition as the very thing that sparks their inspired contribution to life. For me, my writing, my online business and even my happiness pivot from my anxious journey. It propels me to keep reaching out to be “better” and to a more meaningful life. So, I ask, if so many wonderful, critical (to our survival) aspects of life are particular to anxiety, is it possible that we could learn to regard the condition as a necessary, rich, juicy and intense evolutionary quirk that’s driven the human condition forward? At the very least, seeing it in a more positive, less destructive light assists us in one very important way: understanding our anxiety like this stops us from being anxious about being anxious (then being anxious about being anxious about being anxious). This kind of spiral emerges (from my research for my latest book) as the worst aspect of the condition. It sees us descend, unable to contribute what we know to be our best, richest, most meaningful self.