If Eskimos have 100 words for ‘Snow’, then we must have 1000 for “Anxiety”. Stressed, worried, nervous, scared….When you couple that with the emotion of “Anger”, which is the flip side of the same emotion, then the common terms we use in everyday language, to describe this uncomfortable state, become endless: Frustrated, irritable, tense, pissed off, defeated, moody, annoyed….In my experience, Anxiety is the psychiatric symptom that we all suffer, regardless of the diagnosis.

Anxiety/anger is the emotion that people suffer regardless of the diagnosis. Whether it’s major depression, substance abuse, ADHD, schizophrenia…. The emotional symptom that is experienced or suffered is anxiety, regardless of the underlying cause.

Anxiety and anger can be considered different expressions of the same emotion because when we internalize ‘stuff’, or repress this feeling, we experience anxiety or fear. When we open it up, and externalize or act on the emotion, we suffer anger, and exhibit angry, aggressive displays.

And anger always destroys.

Anxiety/anger activates the sympathetic nervous system. This is the branch of the nervous system that prepare us for “fight or flight”.

Throughout the evolution of all life on earth, being vigilant for potential danger and avoidant of pain is necessary for survival. It is highly adaptive to protect ourselves and our loved ones from mortal danger. However, in modern society, our lives are rarely really in danger. Although anxiety causes us to live in a constant ready to fight or flee state, there usually are no enemies attacking us. No lions chasing us.

There is nothing to fight or to flee. Yet, in the United States, one in three people will experience anxiety in their lifetimes, debilitating enough to meet DSM-5 criteria to be a Psychiatric disorder. At any given time, 20% of US adults suffer a clinical anxiety disorder. The prevalence is over 30% in teens (ages 13-17).

Anxiety, or worry severe enough to be considered a disorder, occurs twice as often in women compared to men. This is because women are more likely to internalize their worry while men are more likely to cope in more aggressive ways, such as anger fits or alcoholism.

Throughout our evolutionary history, we were Hunter-gathers and lived in a tribe. This brought close societal connections and provided us a sense of security or calmness. However, living in such close contact also made us susceptible to transmittable infections. We rely on the immune system to protect us against most foreign agents. When we are calm, or in a state of ‘rest and digest’, the immune system has the opportunity to utilize defenses that protect us against communicable infections which cause diseases such as the common cold, the flu, and Covid-19.

If the immune system is compromised by cold weather for example, respiratory viruses are less defended against. There is wisdom in the adage, “Bundle up or you’ll catch your death from cold”.

Importantly, anxiety or stress inhibits immune system factors that suppress the growth of cancerous cells. Anxiety may not be the cause of malignant tumors, but by diminishing the capacity of the immune system, to fight off early growth, it greatly facilitates the development of cancer.

Activation of the stress component of the nervous system results in Inflammation. Chronic anxiety is the primary driver, if not the cause, of auto-immune disorders, where the hyper-active immune system attacks its own body, causing tissue damage such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and diabetes. Organs of the gastrointestinal system are shut down to divert its extensive blood flow to essential areas to ‘fight’. This is the reason we experience a “knot in our stomach“ and often vomit when we’re severely anxious.

In the brain, higher cognitive processes, or “executive functions“, such as reason, focus, planning, and organization are processed in the prefrontal lobe of the cortex. When people are in a state of fight or flight, the prefrontal lobes are shut down, and more primitive areas, including the emotional systems of the brain, are stimulated.

The thalamus, the hypothalamus, the amygdala are fueled to prepare us for the ancient task of surviving. Of course this limits our ability to think think clearly. Most importantly, it limits our ability to listen to others as well as our feelings.

It’s important to realize that anxiety and anger are a positive feedback state, like a forest fire, or labor pains during the birth of a baby. It’s designed to keep going until “something breaks”.

If stress is adaptive to save our lives, then we don’t want to stop fighting or running until we’re safe. But since there’s no objective danger, such as our enemy being defeated, or us having escaped, what signals the sympathetic nervous system to stop?

If it is being expressed as anxiety or stress, that might manifest in a panic attack or “a nervous breakdown”. If it is being expressed as anger or aggression, it’s likely to be an anger fit, or a temper tantrum. And, as previously mentioned, anger always destroys.

Primates have been evolving for approximately 65 million years. It has been highly adaptive to always live in a troop. This allows for sharing of resources, including parenting duties and protecting each other from danger.

We are calm and secure when we are within a group of familiar People. We are powerful together. We are worthless as individuals.

This is because Everything eats primates. Dogs eat primates, cats, birds, reptiles….. if we are alone, we will not survive. We are genetically programmed to be anxious or scared when we are lonely, or outside of a group. And the one thing we cannot tolerate is “loneliness”.

Since the development of agriculture and a concept of owning property, only about 10,000 years ago, we have lost our tribe. This was the beginning of no longer living together.

Many people are aware that recently, the surgeon general of the United States, Vivek Murthy, declared that loneliness is a national epidemic. He shares that, “one out of two Americans today suffer loneliness”.

The only thing we have access to or any control over is our emotions. It is calming when we are looking inward. Meditation, prayer, exercise….. Because we have no access to, or control over, anything external to us. When we focus on external things, such as what other people do or don’t do, or what may happen in the future, we have no access to this and and no control over this, so the emotion we experience is anxiety or fear and anger.

It is routine in modern society for people to be worried what may or may not happen in the future, and angry over what other people did or did not do. Anxiety or worry causes suffering, and anger always destroys.

I believe in the Buddhist idea that ‘Anger and aggression are the root of all evil’. This supports the primary belief of many philosophies and religions that emphasize “living in the moment”, “The power of Now”, “Be here now”, or, as my hero, Willie Nelson puts it, ”Yesterdays dead and tomorrow is blind, so I live one day at a time”.

It’s easy to say that “anxiety is bad“ and that “calm is healthy”, but it is a different matter entirely as to what to do about it. We will discuss this at length in future posts.