"He regarded this as "the most important thing" in life. Was he talking about climbing Mount Everest or running a marathon-or whatever feat equated to those adventurous things in the 1840s? No: Kierkegaard was referring to anxiety itself. He believed that understanding and using one's anxiety was the great opportunity and adventure of life."
"That might sound like a very strange proposition today, in light of the fact that, as my Atlantic colleague Scott Stossel-the author of My Age of Anxiety-has written, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America today, affecting more than 40 million adults at any given time (and far more womenthan men). Anxiety seems to most people a scourge, not an opportunity: something to eliminate if at all possible. But for my friend, as for most of us, Kierkegaard was right. Within healthy boundaries and when properly managed, anxiety is an integral part of life that can afford learning, raise performance, and even make life an adventure."
Kierkegaard framed anxiety as the central adventure of life, an opportunity to confront and use anxiety rather than flee it. Anxiety disorders are extremely common, affecting tens of millions of adults in the United States and disproportionately affecting women. Many people view anxiety as a scourge to be eliminated, but anxiety, when properly managed and kept within healthy boundaries, can support learning, improve performance, and add a sense of adventure to life. The state of being anxious is often hard to define and difficult to distinguish from related states such as fear, worry, or stress.
Read at The Atlantic
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