For a certain percentage of people, living in a state of hyper-vigilance becomes a way of life; no matter how physically uncomfortable anxiety is - the racing heartbeat, the sweaty palms, dizziness, etc. - these individuals feel they “need” it in order to function at an optimal level. Such anxiety can be said to have reached an almost delusional plateau; those suffering from it have so completely lost touch with how overblown their worries are that they mistake the landscape portrayed by their chronic anxiety for actual reality.
This phenomenon of "addiction to anxiety" has become quite widespread in our society. Mental health researchers are now investigating the roots of such addiction, hoping to shed more light on how this troubling condition develops. Many believe that it actually starts in very early age, and the fact that anxiety is the most common mental health disorder among adolescents is a direct result of this. It is difficult to identify what triggers child anxiety without therapeutic intervention and special social-emotional tests.
The "addiction to anxiety" term is, however, somewhat misleading; though anxiety may produce a kind of “adrenaline rush”, we must not mistake people's reliance on anxiety for actually enjoying anxiety; in fact, the opposite is true: Those who “rely” on chronic anxiety are among the most miserable anxiety sufferers of all.
Why Some People Actively Cultivate Anxiety
The reason we can legitimately feel like we want an emotion despite not deriving any pleasure from that emotion is, according to neuroscientist Dr. Kent Berridge, rooted in the brain: he showed in his research that sensations of “wanting” and “liking” originate from two completely different groups of neurotransmitters in our brain.
The question of why anyone would want to capitalize on this ability is a bit more complex; for some people, the belief that they require anxiety to “manage” everything is based both in a need to establish control over their environment (usually brought on by feelings of helplessness) and the accurate observation that anxiety does briefly increase one's focus and cognitive ability. For others, anxiety functions more like a “classic” addiction; though it may make them extremely unhappy (and even physically ill), they require it to feel “normal”. These individuals are often so used to anxiety that it feels like all they have ever known, and it thus carries the comfort of long familiarity.
In either case, the reliance on anxiety is born from that most basic of human needs: The need for safety and security. This need is based both in survival (the necessity of having a supply of food and water and warm shelter) and within the psyche (our desire for a close, reliable bond with at least one other person). Those who develop a reliance on chronic anxiety may have been conditioned to do so nearly since birth; as a baby needs its carer to survive, parental neglect, abuse, abandonment, and other forms of dysfunction within the home can leave a person with lasting feelings of helplessness well into adulthood. These feelings in turn drive that individual to “overcompensate” with excessive worry, with frequent attempts to combat all perceived threats, no matter how farfetched some of them may in fact be.
While anxiety has its place - survival is, after all, still a challenging endeavour at times - holding onto anxiety in the above manner is invariably destructive. It is inherently illusory in nature; the person relying on anxiety feels as though he or she ought worry about something “on purpose” so that thing will not actually occur (in extreme cases, such people develop elaborate rituals to “prevent” disaster; this is the essence of obsessive-compulsive disorders), but of course, the feared event may well simply happen anyway, further reinforcing the anxious person's perception of abject helplessness.
It also tends to co-opt the sufferer's core identity; he will begin to define himself as “a worrier” and adapt each of his relationships around this role. Though he might mean well, this often spreads the anxiety; his partner will worry more simply due to the “what if” factor (“What if he's right and I should be worried?), and his children will, in all likelihood, grow up to repeat the cycle of anxiety.
At the same time, anxiety actually undermines the sufferer's functioning; while it's true that adrenaline results in bursts of heightened focus, this short-lived benefit is soon supplanted by symptoms such as restlessness, chronic fatigue, difficulty concentrating or experiencing mental “blanks”, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbances.
Likewise, while the chronically anxious person can often “hyper-focus” on a chosen task, he or she tunes out the rest of the world in the process and is often burnt out by the time the task is completed, leaving little energy and patience for loved ones, recreation, self-care, etc.
Escaping the Need for Anxiety
To get out of the toxic cycle described above, one must first admit that anxiety is not a friend, not a helper; its sole purpose is to mask fear, and only through addressing the root cause of this fear can a person begin to “let go” of the need for anxiety.
This process can be challenging, and may involve spiritual epiphanies, digging deep into the past to unravel childhood pain, and/or overhauling present relationships, but it is invariably worth it. Most people who manage to defeat their fear do not actually lose those anxiety-based traits which were precious to them, such as being nurturing and concerned about loved ones, or being able to focus acutely for long periods of time; they simply learn to tune into them in a calmer, more mindful way.