A number of blog posts ago I spoke about whether anxiety (and I distinguished between a number of different types of anxiety) is always 'bad' (I put bad in quotation marks given that there are many uses of this word be it in a moral sense, or otherwise - I'm using it here to suggest something that's not beneficial for the mental health of the person in question).
I had a fairly good response to that post and I thought I'd briefly re-visit it in light of a case study. I'm going to bring into focus the story of a person - let's call him Carlos - that attended a learning session where he was required to take part in a practice counselling session where he was a client.
Carlos was in his mid-twenties, married with two children (one three-year-old and one six-month-old). He had finished his B.A. and was now undertaking further studies in which he was in his final year. He was generally an upbeat guy (optimistic about most things), but sometimes negative thoughts would creep into his mind that he'd keep in his awareness for a little longer than he would've liked.
Carlos entered into the practice session with anxious thoughts regarding his employability when he was to complete his studies. He thought, 'What if all this time spent studying works out so that I don't actually get employed after I finish?' He'd learnt a lot during his B.A. and post-grad, but was questioning his employability upon completion. At the front of his mind was, "What if I don't get a job? My wife and kids will suffer. She already works so much for us now, if I don't find work I'll be a failure!"
He felt himself getting emotional whenever he stayed with these thoughts for too long, therefore he made it an art form putting these things back into his subconscious whenever they came up and kept on trudging on in life.
When he'd established that this anxiety was taking a hold of him whenever he let it come in more than he would've liked the counsellor -let's call her Judy - tried something with him. She said, "Since we've established that anxiety is something you sometimes let get the better of you, I'd like to invite that anxiety to come sit with me. I want to speak with Carlos' Anxiety." She then asked Carlos to move himself to another chair and take the persona of his anxiety (i.e. to pretend he was speaking as Carlos' Anxiety - not being Carlos any longer; this is called personifying the problem, or personification).
Carlos' Anxiety moved into the other chair and stared at Judy. She introduced herself, 'Hi Carlos' anxiety, I'm Judy.' and then proceeded to ask him a question, "I wanted to ask what part you play in Carlos' life." It replied, "I make him worried." It then closed up and didn't really want to talk for a little while (it as thinking, and thinking).
Judy engaged with it again, and seemed to get it to talk for a little longer. It informed Judy that it doesn't seem to get a footing in Carlos' life most of the time, so whenever it's allowed to surface it clamps down and tries to hold on. It likes the ride, and although Carlos didn't find it very useful, it wasn't up to him. Carlos' Anxiety was there to stay, and Carlos might as well get used to it!
After a little more prodding and deliberation, Judy asked a fairly simple question, 'Since you're here to stay, Carlos' Anxiety, what can Carlos do to take care of you best?' After this question, It lit up and said, "Put me to good use! Since I'm not gonna go, Carlos can find a use for me. Use me to motivate him when he's under pressure. To show him what's important. To make him know where his values are and what to do with them."
What could this mean?
Well Carlos' Anxiety made it clear that it wasn't going anywhere. The best Carlos could do was to get used to it, or put it to good use. What good could it be used for? It suggested it appear whenever he was stressed towards a good thing - to push him to get things done rather than leave them to the wayside. Be it an assignment he needed to do; rather than leaving it to the last minute, It could urge him to think about it a week earlier and therefore have more time to get it done. It could be there when applications for work needed to be filled out - to push him to complete more than he thought he could.
For Carlos, It could act in not only ways to make him fret, to churn his insides, give him the sweats, butterflies in his tummy, shaky hands... etc. but also ways that could be seen as beneficial.
Taking that 'energy' and putting it to good use was the only way Carlos could be happy, and Carlos' Anxiety could learn to collaborate with Carlos rather than try and bring him down.
So what can we learn from this?
Through this case example we can see that although at the beginning Carlos regarded the anxiety he experienced whenever he'd think about his employability as somewhat of a cognitive deficit, when he played the role of Carlos' Anxiety (entered into Its Persona) - and prompted by Judy - he was able to think of where It could actually help rather than bring him down. This awareness could propel him towards a greater understanding of himself, and an ability to use It to potentially better himself.
When you thing of the problem as something separate to yourself (i.e. externalising the problem; something I talked about in a previous post about being solution-focused) you can see that although in may take up a large compartment in your whole being, it's not you!
I'm reminded of the film Hugo where the little orphan boy reminisces about the parts that make up a clock. 'They're all meant to be there' he says, 'there are no extra parts!' He says this with excitement. 'So if I'm a part and the world is a machine, I'm actually supposed to be here.'
What's Hugo saying?
He likens the clock and its parts (something that can be taken from Gestalt psychology) to the world. If the world is like the clock, and we are some of its parts, we're supposed to be here. The clock doesn't come with extra parts, but only the parts it needs! If we look at the world, or life in this way we can understand, according to Hugo, our place in the world.
Likening this to our compartmentalised being we can see that there are different aspects of ourselves that are meant to be there. Since they're meant to be there we should be able to find a use for them. Are we going to let this aspect or ourselves tear us down or bring us up?
That's the million dollar question!
Note: If you're experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression that are overwhelming, it's best to seek professional help. Please look towards Beyond Blue, or SANE Australia for some further information, or visit your local GP for a mental health treatment plan.
Images retrieved from:
http://wittybizgal.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/good_vs_evil_by_saibel-copyright-2009.jpg
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5209011c69bedd5615000004/the-truth-about-jeff-bezos-amazing-10000-year-clock.jpg
http://www.impawards.com/2011/hugo_ver2_xxlg.html
http://www.sobernation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/social-anxiety.jpg
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/images/default-source/1.homepage/anxiety-controls/anxietybannerwoman.jpg?sfvrsn=4&size=788
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