Why we worry (and should)

Worry as wisdom

Worrying is not useless. There’s a reason why we do it.

There is a class of people who don’t worry. The fancy term for them is “hypophobia.”

Randolph Nesse quipped:

Where you see these people are in unemployment lines and divorce courts and the morgue. Because they do wild and crazy things.

Good Reasons For Bad Feelings

Randolph Nesse on Anxiety and Evolution (Episode 72)

The fact is that worry is a tool that serves a useful purpose. To overlook that entirely is a mistake.

Even so, many of our worries are irrational. As Seneca said:

There is nothing more wretched than worry over the outcome of future events; as to the amount or the nature of that which remains, our troubled minds are set a-flutter with unaccountable fear.

Moral Letters, 101

But why do we experience anxiety at all? The explanation I’ve found most persuasive is that it is a way to avoid harm: it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Think of it like a smoke alarm. It’s better for an alarm to be too active rather than not active enough. In other words, you’ll live with it going off when you’ve burnt the toast because you won’t live if it remains silent when there’s a proper fire. A few false alarms is much better than missing the real burn. We are preoccupied with future events because the future is best met prepared. Better suffer from anxiety than make truly reckless decisions.

Good worrying then is skill. You want to be fine tuned. The Stoics generally considered anxiety as a negative emotion, but caution is a good one.

Instead of immediately discarding anxieties and worries, ask what purpose they serve. Some serve no purpose at all. But others will have some use in them and can be put towards prudence, instead of pointless rumination. Remember, courage is the mean between cowardice and recklessness. Stoics are against anxiety, but not for heedlessness.