Embracing Anxiety: The Power of Acceptance Over Avoidance

Have you ever felt anxious for no clear reason, like a vague alarm going off in your mind? You’re not alone. Anxiety has become one of the fastest-growing ailments in America, affecting more than 40 million adults. Rates among young people have doubled in the past decade, and the pandemic pushed them even higher.

In this episode of Office Hours, I’m tackling the epidemic of anxiety: what it is, why it’s on the rise, and how to work with it instead of against it. Using insights from psychology, evolutionary biology, and my own research, I share how anxiety can become not just manageable, but even leveraged as a performance enhancer. 

In this episode, I cover:

• The definition of anxiety as “unfocused fear” and how to recognize it in your own life

• Why anxiety has exploded among young adults and teens

• Why young women need to reduce their time spent on social media 

• How anxiety functions as an evolutionary alarm system designed to keep us alive

• Practical strategies for managing your anxiety that focus on presence rather than avoidance

• How the culture of pain elimination fueled the opioid crisis and what it teaches us about pain avoidance 

• Wisdom from Kierkegaard on turning your anxiety into performance-enhancing fuel

• If happiness and unhappiness can coexist

We’d love to hear any feedback you have. Please email us at ⁠officehours@arthurbrooks.com⁠. And please leave a review on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening! 

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Where to find Arthur Brooks: 

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• LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthur-c-brooks/⁠⁠⁠

• Email: ⁠⁠⁠officehours@arthurbrooks.com⁠⁠⁠

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(03:30) A definition of anxiety 

(06:11) Statistics around the current anxiety epidemic 

(07:39) Do social media and screen time contribute to anxiety? 

(08:49) How to work with your anxiety

(12:13) Technique #1: The anxiety journal

(17:46) Technique #2: How NOT to treat it: Elimination

(28:26) Technique #3: Frame anxiety as an adventure 

(31:46) Does modern Western culture lean too much toward self-focus?

(33:01) How do you get better at happiness and unhappiness coexisting?

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Referenced:

• The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Files-Insights-Arthur-Brooks/dp/B0F4MFQ6VN

• Leadership and Happiness course: https://www.hbs.edu/coursecatalog/1885.html

• How to Build a Life: https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/how-build-life/

• How to Worry Less and Be Happier: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/worry-anxiety-management-happiness/677012/

• Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395620309250?

• My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind: https://www.amazon.com/My-Age-Anxiety-Dread-Search/dp/0307269876

• Trends in anxiety among adults in the United States, 2008–2018: Rapid increases among young adults: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395620309250?via%3Dihub

• Global Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents During COVID-19: A Meta-analysis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395620309250?via%3Dihub

• Teens are spending nearly 5 hours daily on social media. Here are the mental health outcomes: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/04/teen-social-use-mental-health

...References continued at: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/office-hours⁠

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