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Mutation: The Shapeshifting Nature of Anxiety

Red haired woman with a halo and flower arm tattoo changing into a vine that is wrapping around her neck

Mutation: The Shapeshifting Nature of Anxiety

The mutation of anxiety is all about how anxiety can change overtime… and not necessarily in a good way. We’re talking about “I worked to overcome my anxiety of being a passenger in a car, got in a car accident, became more anxious as the driver, but slowly I went back to being an anxious passenger again”. “I used to love flying and travel. Now it brings me anxiety and for seemingly no reason whatsoever”. 

I’m these people by the way, and maybe you’re like me too.

The changeable nature of anxiety is something that is not talked about in therapy. 
Nope. Not going to happen. Why not?

  1. Therapy is often reactive and focused in the present.
  2. No one really teaches therapists this in school.


Let’s unpack this…. Therapy is often reactive and focused in the present.

The majority of people do not go to therapy until there is a problem. Usually clients are focused on eradicating symptoms instead of looking at the multiple pieces that comprise the whole picture. Therapists can definitely help you there, but it’s not necessarily intuitive for therapists to warn clients “Hey! This might happen in the future”. They’re often going to address symptoms and thought processes as the client brings them up and start building solutions from there. 

No one really teaches therapists this in school.

This might be something therapists learn during continuing education if they are specifically focused on anxiety in their practice, but it’s not something taught in master’s level therapy courses. 

Your therapist may not think to mention the mutation of anxiety and may not even know to mention it… but I’ve learned about how anxiety changes through personal experience and I’m here to address it! When you know how anxiety can operate, it gives you back some control (us anxiety people loooove control) and then you’re not surprised when something changes. It gets you one step closer to overcoming anxiety instead of it overcoming you.

For more information on anxiety visit the National Institute of Mental Health here:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders