Fighting anxiety like my life depends on it
TLDR: The struggle is real. In January 2025, during a vacation from work, I focused on a few philosophical exercises that decreased my anxiety to an astonishing degree. I recommend them wholeheartedly. However, in spite of keeping up those habits in February, going back to work immediately re-ignited my bad anxious habits… I would say to an equally astonishing degree! This forced me to wonder why these philosophical exercises did not rescue me in this new context and to reckon with the depth of my anxiety disorder – its intensity, pervasiveness, and origin. I share all the philosophical insights I can muster. Anxiety is what happens when you sense that you are in a situation of “problematic uncertainty” 1 . You feel that you lack information in a way that leaves you vulnerable to a potential threat. The French have this wonderful idiom that literally translate as “I do not know what sauce I am going to be eaten with” 2 . It means that we do not know what to expect exactly (though ...