Feeling Bad Is Actually Good 165
Internal vs. External Anxiety Stimuli
You are likely well aware that external stimuli, or situations
or objects in your environment, can lead to anxiety. We
have covered many examples in this book thus far, but as a
very brief refresher, almost anything in the environment,
including other people, animals, natural disasters, germs,
and even everyday objects, can make people feel anxious.
Sometimes anxiety is adaptive and helps you avoid harm,
and sometimes it amounts to nothing more than a false
alarm. Anxiety can also arise from internal experiences:
thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. W hen people
experience anxiety, especially these false alarms, they tend
to negatively judge themselves for thinking and feeling
(both emotionally and physically) the way they do. W hat
this tells us is that the problem isn’t anxiety itself; instead,
it’s the problematic way you respond to your internal expe-
riences. This way of responding not only exacerbates your
anxiety but also allows it to persist over the long term.
Further, it leads to avoidance of situations or experiences
that you associate (through conditioning) with your
anxiety. Avoidance strategies usually include attempts to
change the intensity and/or frequency of your internal
experiences through suppression or outright behavioral
avoidance. For example, if you are irrationally worried
about something, you might try to avoid thinking about
your worry by distracting yourself, physically removing
yourself from the situation, or actively trying to suppress
the content from your mind.