Mastery: The 3 Stages To Anxiety

Issue No. 62 | March 5th, 2024 | Read Time: 2 Minutes

I don't believe there's anyone who can truly say they don't experience anxiety.

I do believe there are people who have become desensitized and are more able to take whatever life throws at them, but anxiety is a type of demon that you can't completely shake.

As for myself, I've gotten pretty good at pushing it deep down, but I still find myself succumbing to it every so often.

But in order to get better at controlling it, I believe you have to learn exactly how anxiety works. Or better yet, the three stages to overcoming it.

In Seneca's book, On Anger, Seneca shares his version of the three stages of anxiety. Or what he calls, Passion.

The first stage of anxiety is what happens to everyone. It's that initial feeling of shock or stress as the result of anticipating or experiencing an unfortunate event.

The Stoics agreed that the first stage is practically unavoidable in some scenarios. That for everyone, a certain amount of anxiety is natural.

It's what you do next that matters.

The second stage is what I'd call de-catastrophization. This stage contains the group of people who look at an event factually without blowing it out of proportion. They simply take a step back from their initial thoughts and withhold their judgment about it. 

Those are the kind of people who know that responding with courage will take them farther than panicking.

Sadly, this group only contains a fraction of the population.

The third stage of anxiety is the complete opposite of its predecessor. In this stage, the person catastrophizes whatever might happen which only makes things quickly spiral out of control. They start dwelling on things that could never happen, fixate on the worst outcome, and blow things way out of proportion.

This group consists of almost everyone around you.

And I'm not saying this because I think you reside in stage three. But what I am saying is that experiencing anxiety is normal; even for the most stoic sage.

It's what you do after that initial impression is what matters.

Will you succumb to the demon of anxiety, or will you fight back and respond with courage?

Think of it this way, wouldn't you praise someone else if they responded calmly in the same situation?

So make the choice every time you hear anxiety knocking. Just know that life is too short and beautiful to spend it dwelling inside.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I'm Currently Reading - Right now I'm still in the middle of reading Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. The third installment to his biography of Theodore Roosevelt.

Quote Of The Week

• “Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” — Victor E. Frankl