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by kortilla 934 days ago
No, “I’m a victim” is largely a reinforcement to anxiety.
2 comments

This is such a silly thing to say tbh. The only non anxious people I’ve seen IRL are effectively idiots so you might be right.

Anxiety is a valid emotion that’s trying to warn you that your surrounding is not good. If anxiety is happening at the scale we’re seeing in the world, then calling it an individual problem is outright wrong.

Anyway, my point is, “I’m a victim” isn’t a reinforcement to anxiety. It’s an understanding that what you’re feeling is a valid emotion and to work around it rather than try to actively combat it on an individual level.

> Anxiety is a valid emotion that’s trying to warn you that your surrounding is not good. If anxiety is happening at the scale we’re seeing in the world, then calling it an individual problem is outright wrong.

This is a byproduct of mass/social media exploiting that mechanic in individuals to keep people tuned in. Fear, obligation or guilt gets to 99% of people. Let's talk about Fear.

Everyone I know with anxiety issues is terminally-online or, before the internet, tuned in to the news every waking minute of their day. They are hyper-aware of the dangers of the world and are always in a falsely-heightened state of arousal.

It makes the world feel smaller and more dangerous than it actually is. It sucks that people are dying in Ukraine. But you don't live there, and have probably never even met a native Ukie. We aren't supposed to react to danger on the other side of the planet. But we're exposed to it and more nonetheless while powerless to do anything about it. It's reinforcing helplessness.

No animal can function this way. It would eventually become so skittish and paranoid it will start making mistakes, and run directly into the crocodile pit while trying to escape a yapping poodle.

The ignorant aren't immune to anxiety because they're retarded; they're tending to the lot in life they do have control over and reacting to dangers that directly threaten them.

The worst self-induced anxiety offenders are the ones who seek out other peoples' conflicts to involve themselves in.

> [Anxiety] is a byproduct of mass/social media

How would that explain all the social anxiety out there?

As someone with anxiety, I don’t think the interpretation/conclusion is necessarily that “I’m a victim.” For me, it’s more the realization that I’m having a reasonable reaction to my surroundings and circumstances, meaning the problem isn’t “I’m broken” but rather, “These thoughts/patterns/habits are sub-optimal and unhelpful.” It was a great weight off of my shoulders to see that the problem wasn’t me, myself, alone. That realization helped me find the right things to work on and change to improve my personal experience of reality (a work in progress) and to hopefully also improve reality for others.