Anxiety is a natural state of being, arising from a wide range of experiences: frustration, disappointment, failed expectations, physical pain, loss, hunger, danger, grief, boredom, loneliness, and so much more. If we were to call it “chronic fear,” it might sound harsher—like an accusation of cowardice or weakness. But anxiety feels easier to admit, even though it’s just as insidious.
I've come to realize that anxiety isn't merely a fearful reaction to life; it's a fundamental state that we're genetically wired for, serving as a survival mechanism. This baseline is then shaped by our unique conditioning from the moment we're born.
As children, we’re often taught to prioritize performance, achievement, and external validation over inner calm and self-trust. Society prizes this anxious energy because it fuels ambition and productivity. Over time, anxiety becomes a kind of engine—pushing us to accomplish more, chase more, and achieve more, whether that’s power, wealth, or the temporary relief of addiction. If the word anxiety doesn’t resonate, use something else. We have to call it something.
Personally, I don’t mind angst. This state takes many forms and can be described with a wide range of language. Words like angst, dread, and foreboding evoke a deeper, often existential unease, while apprehension, nervousness, and unease suggest subtler, anticipatory worry. More acute expressions like panic, agitation, and distress capture emotional or physical turmoil. Terms such as restlessness, jitters, and tension reflect anxiety’s presence in the body, while paranoia introduces irrational fear or mistrust. Phrases like pervasive fear, a storm beneath the skin, inner turbulence, or the constant hum of unease speak to how anxiety operates as a chronic, invisible companion. It’s the tightness in the chest, the psychic noise, the weight of imagined catastrophes, the emotional static buzzing beneath the surface of ordinary life. At its worst, anxiety feels like emotional claustrophobia, a tightening coil of fear that never fully releases. However we name it, anxiety is not a single emotion but a spectrum of sensations—from quiet disquiet to full-blown terror.