"Evolutionary psychology on anxiety (possible benefits I guess)"
Notes to Self are longer journal entries from Seven Yrs Ago. I was 21 in early 2014.
Evolutionary psychology on anxiety (possible benefits I guess):
increased anxiety serves purpose of increased vigilance regarding potential threats in environment
increased tendency to take proactive actions regarding such possible threats
May cause false positive reactions but an individual suffering from anxiety may also avoid real threats → Anxious people are less likely to die due to accidents
great, the categories of anxiety are like the 9 circles of Hell
* existential anxiety (God forbid I look into this more)
—“dizziness of freedom” Kierkegaard
—the state in which a being is aware of its possible nonbeing
3 categories
ontic – fate and death
moral – guilt and condemnation
spiritual – emptiness and meaninglessness
Paul Tillich, theologian – Tillich argues that spiritual anxiety can be accepted as part of the human condition or it can be resisted but with negative consequences
“Undoubted certitude is not built on the rock of reality.”
In its pathological form, spiritual anxiety may tend to “drive the person toward the creation of certitude in systems of meaning which are supported by tradition and authority”
—In Art and Artist (1932), the psychological trauma of birth was the pre-eminent human symbol of existential anxiety and encompasses the creative person’s simultaneous fear of—and desire for—separation, individuation, and differentiation—Otto Rank, psychologist
—When a person is faced with extreme mortal dangers, the most basic of all human wishes is to find meaning of life to combat the ‘trauma of nonbeing’ as death is near.—Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Yerkes-Dodson curve. Performance increases with arousal up to a point.
Yerkes-Dodson curve
There is an optimal level of arousal needed to best perform. With a certain level of anxiety though, more arousal can exceed that optimum resulting in a decline in performance
* depersonalization—an anomaly of self-awareness, consisting of a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation. Can make world feel vague, dreamlike, less real or lacking in significance, like they are living in a “dream“
For commentary seven years later, go here.