Building a Non-Anxious Life

by John Delony

I will not subject myself to a dangerous, poison-filled work environment. A job that is challenging and uncomfortable is different than being regularly abused, disrespected, undervalued, or taken advantage of. The work should push me farther than I think I’m able to go. My leaders should be supportive, caring, respectful

Secondary trauma is when your body responds to the steady stream of pain you absorb through proximity to other hurting people. Like serving as a nurse or a teacher or a police officer and stepping into the gnarliest, rawest scenes imaginable. Think social workers, counselors, schoolteachers, and ministers too. Think lawyers, doctors, and dentists. All these folks enter into the pain of others for a living. Over time, this has an impact on their bodies as well.

There appears to be some disagreement in the literature as to whether addictions are actually habits, diseases, or learned behaviors—or some of all three. It could be that our bodies get physically addicted to the stress hormones released during the fight-or-flight cycle. Or it could be that we have a psychological addiction to the feeling of power we get from cortisol and adrenaline pulsing through our veins. Or it might be that our body is addicted to the alcohol or heroin or pornography or rage, and it can get us to partake in those behaviors by spinning up the anxiety alarms at the slightest impulse. My reading of the literature is that it’s probably a concoction of all three of these theories, though in the day to day it doesn’t matter much.