Is Anxiety A Disorder Or A Natural Part Of Existence?
Nowadays, most of us treat Anxiety as a problem and look for ways to eliminate it. Busy schedules, calendars, lists created for each and every job and tasks to be finished, applications on our phones… Of course, our own lives should be under our control, but when we try to organize ourselves and micro-manage to reduce the worries created by the modern new world, perhaps the situation we lead ourselves into is an urge to be more controlling that takes over our lives. However, when examined from an existentialist perspective, we can conclude that anxiety should not be seen as a disorder that needs to be completely eliminated, as life and being human give rise to anxiety, which is completely healthy.
One knows that one is going to die. And one carries a small hint of awareness and anxiety of this within every breath one takes. One must make choices; there is no guarantee and certainty of anything. This whole sea of uncertainties creates anxiety. The important thing here is not to eliminate anxiety, but to come to terms with the reality that all these uncertainties are actually natural and that is exactly what life means. That is, learning to live with it. The need for control has perhaps become an invisible defense mechanism that we have developed to deal with this basic existential anxiety.
The Inevitable Relationship Of Freedom And Control
In existential thought, human beings are free. However, the freedom mentioned here brings with it a heavy responsibility and certain obligations rather than being a completely positive and romantic concept as it first comes to mind. Choices are now a necessity. It should not be forgotten: absence of a decision is also a choice. Therefore, our choices have consequences, and in return the consequences affect us. Of course, the result of any choice is not completely safe and certain; that is, it is uncertain. The state of uncertainty also creates anxiety.
Controllability and the desire to impose it can emerge through behaviors such as trying to predict people when experiencing this anxiety, obliging relationships to rules, guaranteeing the future, creating standards and acting accordingly. However, these can be considered as a defense mechanism to alleviate the anxiety and weight caused by being free. Control is a psychological safety measure that we use to avoid contact with the possible risks that our choices will entail.
“Freedom announces itself in anxiety.” (Taşdelen, 2016)
Death, Uncertainty And Vulnerability
One’s awareness of the concept of unavoidable death… From an existentialist perspective, this consciousness is one of the deepest sources of a person’s anxiety. We know that we are going to die and that everything has an end, including ourselves. The burden of this knowledge is sometimes manageable, but other times it spreads to all areas of one’s life as if a parasite. Human beings are fragile, and control is perhaps only one of our attempts to deny our feebleness and mortality.
The control behaviors thus mentioned can be functional at times, such as when making plans, predictions, and trying to minimize risks, but they cause our lives to become more soulless when they become excessive. Making mistakes is also a part of life, and while too much control promises a life without mistakes, what actually happens is that it steals the liveliness and partially the meaning of life.
As I have seen it handled in a similar way in therapy processes, when I examined it from an Existentialist Perspective, my take is that the problem is never uncertainty; rather, it is one’s intolerance of it. There is uncertainty in the natural flow of life, of existing, and control is the effort to change that natural flow and order of life. But sometimes you have to accept that they cannot be changed.
Instead of trying to maximize control and oversee everything, we should open up space for anxiety and take time to listen, because anxiety often increases our awareness of life.
Coexisting With Uncertainty
Life is inherently beyond control. As the tendency to maintain control increases, anxiety does not disappear; it simply changes shape, and the more we strive to control, the more we think about the risks. The source of anxiety is internal, closely related to the mortality, imperfection, and freedom of human beings, regardless of the external world.
Control makes our lives more predictable rather than safer, and we create our comfort zone in a monotone way. However, life and human existence are unpredictable. Our relationships, our character, our body, our dynamics are changeable, and they will all change one day. Life is adorned with surprises, changes, and transformations. Anxiety is the natural companion of this vulnerability.
If we want to be free, to be able to make choices and to enjoy life, it is necessary to adopt a thought that is far from considering anxiety as an enemy: it is a part, an element of freedom, awareness, and being human. We try to tear this piece off by checking it, but this effort only deepens the connection it shares with us. Anxiety will lead to control, control will lead to a sense of uncontrollability, and the feeling of uncontrollability will eventually lead to panic.
We must learn to live with anxiety, to make choices despite all uncertainty and risks, to relate to life in spite of all our vulnerabilities, and to search for meaning, even though we know that we are finite beings. The main thing is to exist with uncertainty.
References
Yığman, F., & Fidan, S. (2021). Intolerance of uncertainty as a transdiagnostic factor. Current Approaches in Psychiatry, 13, 573–587.
Taşdelen, V. (2016). Kierkegaard psychology: Anxiety. Özne Felsefe Dergisi, 25, 65–74.
Kierkegaard, S. (2013). The Concept of Anxiety (Trans. Türker Armaner). İstanbul: İş Bankası Publications.
Urtekin, G. (2022). As a problem in the philosophy of existence: Anxiety. FLSF Felsefe ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 34, 279–299.