Anticipatory Anxiety
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Anticipatory Anxiety
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Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#5Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled.
He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work.
It wasn’t a focus of the book, but he also specifically mentioned helping clients overcome “anticipatory anxiety”. For example, one client was anxious about sweating too much in public, which would cause him to sweat even more.
Frankl’s solution was simple and ingenious: PARADOXICAL INTENTION. Anxiety is a vicious loop, but one way to break out of it is to willfully intend the thing which you fear. In the client’s case, he decided to intentionally try to sweat as much as humanly possible. The paradox: he stopped sweating.
I guess my point is that the mental health epidemic described in the article may be an epidemic of meaning, and also that titular “anticipatory anxiety” is a cycle that can be broken.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#6The article focuses on over-parenting as a source of anxiety. I think it's interesting how much this view has in common with Freud.
According to Freud, people repress thoughts, memories, and desires. This repression is necessary for people to live in a modern, civilized context. But repression also causes negative emotion, including anxiety. In Freud, parents are key to initiating their children into repression. Over-parenting could lead to overly repressed children, which could in turn cause more anxiety.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#7Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work.
It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individualized.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#8Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
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Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#9If this were true all siblings would have similar anxiety issues, but I'm willing to bet this is not really the case. IMHO most mental illness is genetic, or at least the predisposition is, which can than be triggered by upbringing, but it can also be triggered at every other point in your life so... I mean... And Kids will spend a lot of that time in school; parents have to be pretty darn overbearing to get to the level of school-like schedule and behavior control, so again, all very dubious this is all down to parenting.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#10Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
No, I don’t think that’s correct. A person’s sense of meaning is often rooted in something social, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, many artists find meaning in creation. Not because the work product lives on or because other people appreciate it, but for the act itself.