美国国家公共电台 NPR--A new book argues that anxiety is good for you, even though it feels bad

A new book argues that anxiety is good for you, even though it feels bad

Transcript¹

Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion, but can it be useful? NPR's A Martinez talks to clinical psychologist and author Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, who calls anxiety a triumph of human evolution.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

More than 100 million people in the U.S. will experience an anxiety disorder³ at some point in their lives. Anxiety is one of the most common and unpleasant mental health conditions on the planet. But maybe - maybe, just maybe - it's gotten a bad rap. That's the gist² of a new book called "Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good For You Even Though It Feels Bad." And it's written by Tracy Dennis-Tiwary. The clinical psychologist joins me now to talk about why anxiety may actually be useful. Welcome.

TRACY DENNIS-TIWARY: Thank you. Great to be with you.

MART?NEZ: All right. There's an entire industry dedicated⁴ to getting rid of anxiety. Around 10 million Americans take anti-anxiety medication. But research shows anxiety is only becoming more common. So tell us, what are we all doing wrong here?

DENNIS-TIWARY: Well, this is the mystery because we have great treatments. We have growing awareness⁵. We have de-stigmatization. And we're having a lot of great conversations about mental health. But here we are with these tools and, as you say, anxiety continues to be on the rise. And I feel one of the key problems is that we mental health professionals have made some terrible mistakes in how we communicate about, in particular, anxiety and anxiety disorders⁶. We've really spread a couple false beliefs about anxiety. One is that any experience of anxiety is somehow dangerous or a disease, which means we should protect ourselves from it, avoid it, eradicate⁷ it like we would cancer or COVID. And then the second fallacy, really, is that somehow, anxiety is a failure, a failure of happiness, of mental health.

And the problem with these beliefs about anxiety is that they - not only are they incorrect on many levels, but they're also driving us to do many of the more unhelpful things when it comes to coping with anxiety, things like avoiding anxiety, suppressing it, fearing our anxiety. And really, this is a huge opportunity cost because when we do those things, we have fewer opportunities to actually learn to work with anxiety, to cope. And these kinds of avoidance and suppression approaches can actually spiral anxiety even further out of control.

MART?NEZ: In your book, you write that there is a big difference between anxiety and anxiety disorder. So how do we know when we're feeling normal anxiety versus⁸ something, say, more debilitating⁹?

DENNIS-TIWARY: Anxiety is on a spectrum¹⁰. It's more of a dimmer switch than a light switch, you know, that you flick¹¹ on and off. So you know, anxiety is experienced from just excitement, a sort of sense of butterflies in your stomach, all the way over to panic. But even frequent and intense experiences of anxiety are not enough to diagnose an anxiety disorder. We only diagnose them when the ways that we cope with anxiety are actually getting in the way of living a full life. So I might feel socially anxious. I might feel anxious about having an interview with a wonderful journalist. And I can feel all those feelings. But if I'm starting to cope with that nervousness in ways that cause me to refuse to do the interview, that cause me not to leave my home, that cause me not to be able to go to work or be with loved ones, it's those coping approaches that are getting in my way that would lead to a diagnosis¹² of an anxiety disorder.

MART?NEZ: How similar is all of this to, say, physical training, when an athlete recognizes the difference between the discomfort¹³ of pushing your body to the limits or recognizing the pain of an actual injury?

DENNIS-TIWARY: I love that metaphor¹⁴, to compare mental health with physical health, because if we stopped thinking of all mental illness or mental challenges like anxiety as a disease and instead thought of them as health, as a positive state like fitness to work towards, we do a few really important things differently. First of all, we'd know that it wasn't black and white, that you either have mental health or mental illness and you'd be working towards this positive goal. You'd engage in the stress and strain sometimes of tolerating some of these uncomfortable experiences, knowing that you're not vulnerable, that you're actually not fragile, you're not going to break into a million pieces, you're antifragile. I think we'd also realize that prevention is key. So rather than wait until we've reached some sort of a debilitating experience of emotional distress¹⁵, we would actually get in front of it. We'd say, hey, I'm experiencing anxiety right now, I'm experiencing these difficult emotions, what are these emotions telling me? How can I work with them? How can I get support when I need it so that then it becomes a positive, active pursuit of mental health?

MART?NEZ: Are you saying that anxiety is a good thing?

DENNIS-TIWARY: Anxiety is a good thing, even though it feels bad. Anxiety is a double-edged sword, like all of our difficult emotions. And the problem is that we've taught ourselves to fear and revile¹⁶ and suppress all feelings of emotional discomfort. And it's an opportunity cost because they're meant to be there to give us information. Emotions like anxiety tell us that there's something going on in the world.

MART?NEZ: Has there been a time in your life when you felt maybe anxiety was helping¹⁷ you get through something, accomplish a goal?

DENNIS-TIWARY: One of the most anxiety-provoking experiences of my life is when we discovered that my son, my first born, was born with a congenital heart condition which would require open heart surgery when he was an infant. When we knew this, it was really anxiety that allowed me to function. It kept me hopeful that there was a future. I understood that something bad could happen. But I really believed that if I worked hard enough that that good outcome that the doctors told me about was also possible. So it kept me focused, energized¹⁸. The worry that I had, it wasn't easy. But it kept me, really, working hard to get him the best treatment, the best follow-up care. And, I think, in many ways, if I hadn't had that anxiety, I might have fallen prey¹⁹ to despair.

MART?NEZ: You know, I think, as time goes on, I think we're trying to perfect ourselves as humans. We try our best to take the bad stuff away and put our best face forward. But I guess what you're saying is that there are certain parts about us, even though they don't seem perfect, that we should learn to embrace and just realize that that is who we are.

DENNIS-TIWARY: I agree with you so much to say that we're holding ourselves to this very toxic²⁰ standard of positivity. And it's not working. It's clearly not working. That's why we can have these great treatments and solutions out there and, still, anxiety disorders and mental health problems are on the rise. I think the more that we - and, you know, embrace is sort of a fluffy²¹ word, but I think just acknowledge the reality of the messiness of being human and to realize that that's not vulnerability, that's actually a huge source of strength. It's like a wave. It's - you know, when we think about our difficult emotions, they are these waves that drive our lives. And you can drown in a wave, but you can also ride it forward. You can also surf it, you know? And - but it takes actual belief that we can do it and actually building skills and actually building habits and believing that that's possible.

MART?NEZ: That's Tracy Dennis-Tiwary. Her new book is called "Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good For You Even Though It Feels Bad." Thanks.

DENNIS-TIWARY: Thank you so much.

(SOUNDBITE OF VULFPECK'S "SMILE MEDITATION")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

5 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

6 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

8 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

9 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

10 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

11 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

12 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

13 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

14 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

15 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

16 revile   

v.辱骂，谩骂

参考例句：

• No man should reproach,revile,or slander another man.人们不应羞辱，辱骂或诽谤他人。|||Some Muslim communities in East Africa revile dogs because they believe that canines ate the body of the Prophet Muhammad.一些东非的穆斯林团体会辱骂狗，因为他们相信是它们吃了先知穆罕默德的尸体。

17 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

18 energized   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的过去式和过去分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• We are energized by love if we put our energy into loving. 如果我们付出能量去表现爱意，爱就会使我们充满活力。 来自辞典例句
• I am completely energized and feeling terrific. 我充满了活力，感觉非常好。 来自辞典例句

19 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

20 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

21 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。