Anxiety as a Signal, Not a Sentence

As we continue our psycho-educational journey on understanding anxiety, it’s important to support the need for such journey. Anxiety disorders affect an estimated 4.4% of the global population, which is approximately 359 million people worldwide (World Health Organization, 2025).  According to the Healthy Minds Study (2025), about 32% of college students reported moderate to severe anxiety symptoms, and studies indicate that the incidence and prevalence of anxiety disorders have continued to rise among adolescents and young adults in recent years (Bie et al., 2024). About 18% of U.S. adults, or about 40 million people had an anxiety disorder in the past year, that’s nearly 1 in 5 adults. This makes anxiety disorders one the most common class of mental disorders. These statistics help show both the scale of anxiety and why understanding it, as encouraged in our book of the month Good Anxiety, matters deeply.

Anxiety has a way of announcing itself loudly, tight chests, racing thoughts, restless nights, often leaving us feeling as though something is wrong with us. Yet what if anxiety is not a defect to be fixed, but a signal to be understood? In a culture that urges us to silence discomfort at all costs, we rarely pause to ask what anxiety might be trying to tell us about our values, our fears, and even our growth. This reframing is where in Chapter 1, Wendy Suzuki invites us to begin. Suzuki opens by grounding anxiety in neuroscience and human evolution, reminding us that anxiety is the brain’s ancient alert system designed to protect, prepare, and propel us forward. Rather than introducing anxiety as the enemy, we are challenged to see it as information, a messenger that, when rightly understood, can become a doorway to insight, intention, and transformation.

In the opening chapter, Suzuki lays the foundation by explaining what anxiety is from both a neuroscience and evolutionary perspective. Rather than treating anxiety as simply a negative emotion to be suppressed, she frames it as a natural, adaptive response that has helped humans survive throughout evolution. Below are a few key themes from chapter one.

Anxiety as a biological survival mechanism: Suzuki describes anxiety as the brain and body’s automatic alert system that detects potential threats and prepares us to respond. When the brain perceives danger, whether real or imagined, it triggers physiological changes (like increased heart rate and stress hormones) that ready the body for “fight or flight.” This response was crucial for ancient humans facing predators and dangers, and it still functions today. 

How the brain processes anxiety: Suzuki further explains the roles of key brain regions, such as the amygdala, which rapidly identifies potential threats, and the prefrontal cortex, which evaluates and interprets those threats. These systems work together to decide whether anxiety should help us act or whether it’s an overreaction to a non-dangerous situation. Understanding this neurobiology helps readers see anxiety as information and energy, not just fear. 

It is here that I would like to further expound! Assessing anxiety is essential because anxiety has the power to narrate a story that feels true but is not always accurate. In my practice as a psychologist, I often treat clients who have anxious responses to “perceived” threats or non-dangerous situations. When anxiety goes unexamined, it can quietly shape our perceptions, decisions, and reactions often leading us to respond to imagined threats rather than real ones. Why does this occur? Let’s examine this a bit further below.

Anxiety Distorts Reality

Anxiety functions as a threat-detection system, but when it is heightened, it overinterprets cues and fills in gaps with fear-based assumptions. The mind begins to ask “What if?” instead of “What is?” Without assessment, we may:

• Assume rejection where none exists

• Anticipate catastrophe without evidence

• Read danger into neutral situations

These distortions create false narratives or stories driven by fear rather than facts.

False Narratives Hijack Behavior

Unassessed anxiety often leads to reactions that do not align with our values:

• Avoidance instead of engagement

• Defensiveness instead of curiosity

• Control instead of trust

When we respond to a false narrative, we may attempt to protect ourselves from a threat that does not exist while missing opportunities for growth, connection, or healing.

Assessment Separates Signal from Noise

Assessing anxiety helps us pause and ask critical questions:

• Is this fear proportionate to the situation?

• What evidence supports or contradicts this thought?

• Am I responding to the present moment or a past wound?

This process allows us to distinguish between legitimate concern and anxiety-generated noise, restoring clarity and discernment.

Assessment Reclaims Agency

When anxiety is assessed, it no longer holds unquestioned authority. Instead of anxiety telling us who we are or what will happen, we become active interpreters of our internal experience. This shift:

• Moves us from reactivity to intentionality

• Replaces fear-based decisions with informed choices

• Grounds us in reality rather than rumination

From a Faith & Formation Lens

Anxiety often speaks in absolutes [never, always, doomed, unsafe]. Assessment interrupts these voices and invites truth, wisdom, and trust to speak louder. Discernment becomes an act of spiritual and emotional maturity: testing the narrative before believing it.

Key Takeaways from Chapter 1

1. Anxiety is not a flaw -it’s a feature

Anxiety is an evolutionary survival mechanism, not a personal failure. It evolved to help humans detect danger and prepare for action.

Anxiety is the brain’s way of keeping us alive.

2. Anxiety is information, not the enemy

Suzuki reframes anxiety as a signal, data from the brain that something matters, requires attention, or needs preparation.

Anxiety carries information about what we care about.

3. The brain is wired to detect threat quickly

The amygdala reacts fast (often before conscious thought), while the prefrontal cortex helps interpret and regulate that response. Anxiety becomes problematic when this system is overactivated.

Your brain is designed to react first and think second.

4. Modern life overstimulates an ancient system

Our brains evolved for short bursts of danger, not constant emails, deadlines, and social pressure. Chronic anxiety often comes from a mismatch between ancient biology and modern stress.

We live in a world of constant alarms without physical resolution.

5. Anxiety can be redirected, not eliminated

The goal is not to “get rid of” anxiety but to work with it, learning how to channel its energy into focus, motivation, and growth.

The question is not how to eliminate anxiety, but how to use it.

In short, assessing anxiety matters because not every thought is a truth, and not every fear is a warning. When we assess anxiety, we prevent false narratives from directing our lives and instead respond with clarity, wisdom, and grounded hope. As we continue our journey of healing, we must rethink anxiety not as something to eliminate but as a signal that something matters, We must remember that anxiety is a mechanism that, when understood, can guide attention, motivate preparation, and signal opportunities for growth. 

References:

Bie, F., Yan, X., Xing, J., Wang, L., Xu, Y., Wang, G., Qian, W., Guo, J., Qiao, J., & Rao, Z. (2024). Rising global burden of anxiety disorders among adolescents and young adults: Trends, risk factors, and the impact of socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19 from 1990 to 2021. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, Article 1489427. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1489427

Healthy Minds Network. (2025). 2024–2025 Healthy Minds Study: National data report. https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2024-2025_HMS-National-Data-Report_Student.pdf

Suzuki, W., & Fitzpatrick, B. (2021). Good anxiety: Harnessing the power of the most misunderstood emotion. Atria Books.

World Health Organization. (2025, September 8). Anxiety disorders. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/anxiety-disorders

With care and intention,

Rev. Dr. Sha’Leda Mirra, | Pastor | Psychologist/Therapist | Educator

Helping faith meet emotional wholeness—one intentional step at a time.

© 2026 Rev. Dr. Sha’Leda Mirra. All rights reserved.

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