Office Hours with Arthur Brooks

2 Proven Strategies (and 1 Big Mistake) for Dealing with Anxiety

27 snips
Sep 1, 2025
Anxiety affects millions in the U.S., especially among young people, who have seen a sharp increase. Discover how anxiety can be redefined as 'unfocused fear' and transformed into a performance enhancer. Social media amplifies mental health issues, particularly for young women. Embrace negative emotions instead of avoiding them, as avoidance can lead to serious consequences, including the opioid crisis. Explore practical strategies for managing anxiety and learn how to turn it into a source of personal growth.
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INSIGHT

Anxiety Is Unfocused Fear

  • Anxiety is best defined as “unfocused fear” derived from episodic fear mechanisms gone chronic.
  • This chronic mild fear produces continual stress-hormone drips that make life uncomfortable.
ADVICE

Turn Worry Into A Journaled Plan

  • Use an anxiety journal: write your top five worries, the worst-case/most-likely/best-case scenarios, and assign probabilities.
  • For each scenario, list concrete actions so fears become focused problems you can plan for.
ADVICE

Don't Try To Eliminate Pain

  • Avoid trying to eliminate negative feelings or suppress anxiety because suppression increases it.
  • Instead accept distress as painful but manageable and stop treating pain elimination as the goal.
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