The Value of Anxiety

Helen's hobby was competitive ice skating. She loved skating; she loved the lessons and the practice; she loved competing. The problem was she would get extremely anxious before a competition. Her head would hurt, she would get nauseous, and her body would shake.

Helen always placed in the top three and occasionally would win. She was convinced that if she could take the edge off her anxiety, then she would perform better and enjoy competing even more.

She decided to get a very mild anti-anxiety medication and take a very low dose before her next competition. Her experience shocked her.

At her next competition with the help from the medication, Helen was calm, relaxed and confident as she entered the rink to perform. She felt sure that this newly found confidence would help her win the competition.

In the first half of the performance she felt focused and strong. As she entered the second half of her routine, she noticed she was losing her edge, and felt her energy waning. As she went into the last sequence of moves, her body felt heavy and she had to push through to the end. She placed lower in this event than she had in a long time.

Helen’s experience with anxiety and her attitude toward it is fairly typical. Anxiety is an emotion that most of us dislike, and would prefer to avoid. We dread the idea that we would feel anxious about anything, much less something important. We get so focused on preventing anxiety or avoiding anxiety we miss the value it has.