Aytekin Tank has an interesting read at Fast Company.
Basically, he urges anxious folks to think of their anxiety as excitement, instead.
Anxiety, after all, and excitement share a lot of things in common: You’re tense, jumpy, your heart goes faster. Physiologically, there are just a lot of similarities.
He notes a 2014 Harvard study that found relabeling one’s anxiety as “excitement” led to better performance.
In the study, anxious participants were asked to sing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.
Before singing, the researchers told some to say “I am anxious,” others to say, “I am excited,” and another group, neither.
The ones who were told to say “I am excited” performed measurably better, with improved self-confidence. Meanwhile, the ones who said they were anxious did worse.
The point is — relabeling your anxiety as excitement seems to lead to better outcomes.
I can see this. I get it. It’s happened to me, as well. Good study.
Now for my caveat, and why I am always reluctant to post these kinds of things, as interesting as they are.
This study has very little, if anything, to do with generalized anxiety disorder, which isn’t limited to an event, a time, or a situation.
If you live with the dread of an anxiety disorder, day after day — trying to relabel it “excitement” probably won’t cut it. For me, it might help for a few hours. But a whole day? A whole month? A life?
“I don’t feel an overwhelming sense of doom. It’s simply a pleasure burst of excitement.”
That’s not going to dry out sales of Lexapro.
To me, many of these sorts of tips (relabeling things, in this case) might help at the margin, they’re interesting, and you might as well try, but they also hold their dangers as well.
People who aren’t depressed or anxious are likely to read studies like this and say, “HEY BUDDY! HAVE YOU TRIED RE-LABELING YOUR FEELINGS! THERE’S A STUDY BY A HARVARD RESEARCHER!”
So in an odd way, these kinds of studies can promote more ignorance about mental health than anything.
But still, as with most of these tips, worth a try, right?
