Anxiety is Corked Up Motivation

Understanding Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Anxiety

Anxiety is often portrayed as an entirely negative experience, something to be eliminated from our lives. However, like many of our emotions, anxiety exists for a reason and can serve an important purpose. The key lies in understanding the difference between adaptive anxiety – which helps us navigate life's challenges – and maladaptive anxiety, which can paralyze us and diminish our quality of life.

The Evolutionary Purpose of Anxiety

Our capacity for anxiety developed as a survival response. If a tiger is running after you, anxiety and fear are the things that keep us alive as we run from the threat we cannot control! When our ancestors encountered dangerous situations, their anxiety triggered the fight-or-flight response, preparing them to either confront threats or escape to safety. This same response continues to operate in our modern lives, though the "threats" we face today often look quite different from those of our prehistoric past.

Today’s threats are generally not life and death situations. In our Evolutionary Development, anxiety motivated us to take action to survive. We will come back to this idea later…

What Makes Anxiety Adaptive?

Adaptive anxiety functions as a natural awareness system that helps us:

* Prepare for important events, like job interviews or presentations

* Meet deadlines and maintain responsibilities

* Stay alert in potentially dangerous situations

* Make careful decisions

* Motivate ourselves to solve problems proactively

*Inspires us to try new things

*May feel uncomfortable and cause some physical symptoms that are manageable and pass

When anxiety is adaptive, it prompts appropriate actions. It serves as a catalyst for positive change and better preparation, ultimately enhancing our performance and safety.

That does not mean it feels good…on the contrary. We have the idea that motivation feels good and anxiety feels bad. But motivation does not always feel like excitement, passion and inner-drive. Sometimes it just feels like anxiety.

Adaptive Anxiety as a Motivational Force

Adaptive anxiety can be one of our most powerful motivational tools when channeled effectively. Like a coach who pushes you to achieve your best, this form of anxiety:

* Creates productive urgency that helps you complete tasks ahead of deadlines

* Heightens focus and concentration when you need to perform well

* Provides the energy boost needed to tackle challenging projects

* Increases preparation and planning for important events

* Sharpens decision-making by encouraging thorough consideration of options

This motivational aspect of anxiety helps explain why many high achievers describe feeling a certain level of anxiety before important performances or events. Rather than hindering them, this anxiety serves as the fuel that drives their success. Athletes often report that pre-game jitters help them perform better, and students frequently find that a moderate level of test anxiety improves their study habits and exam performance. Having “butterflies” before a stage performance helps the performer engage.

If you get “butterflies” before a presentation or if your thoughts are running away when faced with a decision, this is expected and adaptive. It is not the anxiety itself that is the problem, but our own SELF-TALK about it that causes us to distrust ourselves and our bodies. 

The Rollercoaster: True Story

My son wanted to prove to his 10-year-old friends that he could go on the big rollercoaster at the amusement park. Standing in line for 25 minutes, he was mostly silent, listening to his friends chatter away with glee.

When we reached the rollercoaster's car, everyone climbed aboard except for my son, who just walked off and went aside to watch.

When his friends returned after the 90-second ride, they were buzzing with excitement. They encouraged him to try it, but my son was listening to his anxiety and not to his friends. Feeling more and more vulnerable and exposed.

I asked if he would like to try an experiment. First, I asked him to tell me his thoughts while standing in line.

“I’m gonna die. I’m gonna fall out. I hate when my stomach flips over. If I throw up my friends will make fun of me.” And on and on in the same vein. The poor kid spent so much time standing in line experiencing an imagined horror for 25 minutes, that when faced with the choice to board the ride, he had already had enough.

I asked him to try thinking different thoughts that were JUST as plausible but more positive. His friends were happy to help out and we went back in line with my son saying true things that he did not yet believe, “Everyone looks like they are having fun! Everyone got off the ride alive! That flip in the stomach is interesting! My friends support me! I will be proud of myself if I try this new thing! I will have a new story to tell! The ride only lasts 90 seconds and I have the grit to endure anything for 90 seconds!”

Guess what….he went on the rollercoaster!

When he got off he was laughing and chatting with his friends who were all giving him high fives. I asked what he thought of the ride and he said, “It was fun and I’m proud of myself for doing it. But I still don’t like rollercoasters.”

That last part is SO important. Befriending your anxiety and managing it in adaptive ways so you can use its motivating power may not result in loving rollercoasters, or job interviews, or speeches. But it IS the thing that helps you do tough things…because you can. You can do tough things.

He did the tough thing so that he could make a REAL decision about whether he liked rollercoasters or not. He did not let anxiety keep him from finding out.

Adaptive Anxiety as uncorked excitement/motivation

In neuropsychology, when we look at the brain under an fMRI, the brain looks the same whether the subject is experiencing anxiety or excitement. Think about that for a moment: the same areas of the brain, in the same intensity, with the same neurochemicals. The ORGAN of your brain does not know the difference between anxiety and excitement/motivation.

But YOU do.  So why is that?

The only difference is in HOW you talk to yourself. If you think negative thoughts, you experience it as anxiety. If you talk to yourself positively, you experience excitement and then motivation. The facts are the same. It is YOU who changes.

We could all use more excitement, more motivation, and less anxiety…so MIND YOUR THOUGHTS! You can change them and they are contagious!

Tune in next week for Part 2: When Anxiety Becomes Maladaptive