Actress Ashley Tisdale’s FRENSHE: How to Use Anxiety to Your Advantage

Let’s be real — no one loves anxiety. Defined as “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome”, anxiety puts us in a state of paralyzing fear. If we avoid this feeling — named experiential avoidance by behavior analysts— it can maintain or exacerbate psychological distress. From this emotional state, it is difficult to evaluate outcomes, make choices or even go about our day. 

Things happen. We occasionally bomb interviews, dates and life in general, and our brains are built to make sure painful things don’t happen again. However, this evolutionary tactic originated to keep us safe from becoming a lion’s dinner, and it hasn’t exactly modernized with the times — your brain can’t tell the difference between a scary boss and an actual tiger. So, while you feel like you’re about to be eaten alive, you are actually much safer.

If we can disrupt this ingrained reaction, we can learn to meet these moments and come to a healthier, more productive way of managing this uncomfortable state as opposed to pouring a glass of wine, diving into an IG hole or buying things we don’t need as a temporary escape. 

Here are two actions and three questions to turn nonfunctional anxiety into a healthy stress management practice.