Stress and anxiety are helpful in life.
Imagine you’re hiking in Alaska, and you suddenly find yourself in front of a Kodiak bear that’s fresh out of hibernation and looking for his first meal. You can actually see drool coming out of his mouth, and the only defense you have is a spoon…
…Okay, bad example.
Let’s say you’re allergic to wasps. Stress is what tells you to be careful when they’re nearby. When you see a wasp, anxiety is what drives you to move in the opposite direction. These are normal defense mechanisms, and they’ve allowed human beings to evolve.
However, with evolution, the causes of anxiety changed in modern times: work, family, money, health, and so on. Cavemen didn’t care about all of that… but today, these are the things that stress us the most.
Today I’m going to talk about Generalized Anxiety Disorder, like I did before with depression. Although it’s a really common disorder, few people easily accept it or feel comfortable talking about it.
Note: You might need a little effort and imagination to get into this comic strip… but you’ll definitely appreciate it more if you try to go along with my unusual analogies. Enjoy!
Translated by Ellie Rieber with edits by Patricia Rainville; proofread by Stéphanie Alcaraz-Robinson.
Posted in Comics
Tagged amygdala, anxiety, anxious, back, balance, body, book recommendation, brain, brakes, can't breathe, career, CBT, chemical, cognitive-behavioural therapy, collar, concerns, depression, diagnosis, diarrhea, doctor, electric, everyday life, evidence-based, exaggerated, examined, exams, experiment, family, feelings, focus, GAD, generalized anxiety disorder, get rid of, going to die, health, healthy, heart problems, help, homework, hope, hurting, imaginary, keys, legs, locks, loved ones, mechanism, medical file, medication, metal, missed opportunities, money, muscles, neck, neurotransmitters, pain, panic, panic attacks, prefrontal cortex, prisoner, professionals, psychological, psychologist, psychotherapy, real world, reassuring, restless, self-help, serious, shock, sick, sleep, stiff, stomachaches, stress, stressful, symptoms, tense, test, therapist, thought patterns, tired, uncontrollable, unlocking, work, worried, worries
