Free Floating Anxiety

“Free Floating Anxiety” by G. Dumas

When an average person says I feel “anxious”.  Most people understand the feeling…being apprehensive about a troubling event.  In contrast, when a person who suffers from clinical “free floating anxiety” says they are anxious, this type of anxiety is a mental disorder.  I think this type of anxiety needs a new name to differentiate it from common anxiety.  How about calling it Anxiety +, or Anxiety ++.  Any other ideas?

“Anxiety +” or “free floating anxiety” makes me feel very, very unsettled since I can not point to a triggering event that I can not talk myself out of.  The things that are often the most agitating when I am having “free floating anxiety” are just normal parts of life, a phone call, money transaction, a date with friends.   The anticipation of dealing with these things feels like I am in a car that is revving up to go zooming at a high speed into one of these ordinary life moments.  Having these kinds of feelings is dibilitating.

I need to shut the car engine off, be quiet and reflect.  So here is my trick.  I ask myself only one question “what am I observing?”  The answer:  A person sitting in a chair.  That’s it.  As long as I can keep my focus on what I am actually observing, I can, one by one, start to deal with the doings of the day.  By keeping it very simple and not over thinking it, I do not get caught up in the confusion and madness of “free floating anxiety.”