People who suffer from anxiety disorders have – according to studies – three distinct superpowers.
Although anxiety can feel as if it’s doing nothing but causing damage, there’s a flip side.
Depending on how you see it, it could be argued that anxiety comes with some special powers.
Several pieces of research suggest that anxiety comes with three distinct traits that, surprisingly, are very positive. Check them out and see if you have any of these special powers.
1. An ability to sense the energy of others
Someone with high anxiety can tell whether or not someone has a positive or negative temperament.
Where negative people make others feel uncomfortable to be around, positive people are generally more engaged with others and therefore a bit easier to be around. People with anxiety often grow an antenna that helps then read other people’s mood.
This is so they can adapt themselves to fit in with other people’s temperaments, needs and requests therefore insuring a smoother social transaction.
It can also be because they are seeking others’ approval thereby making them into what they think the other person wants. This is also known as a sixth sense and the roots are often buried in childhood.
People who don’t suffer from anxiety often have trouble being able to tell when someone is overly negative. This is where those that do suffer anxiety step in and build a bridge between other parties who have less ability to sense the mood or energy of others.
It could be said that this gauge of others extends to the ‘flight or fight’ response (also called hyper arousal, or the acute stress response) which is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.
It appears that those with high anxiety are more aware of the things going on around them.
Have you ever walked home alone and you get goose bumps if you think someone is watching you or about to jump you?
A study(1) published in the European Journal of Psychology found that people with high levels of anxiety were quicker to detect danger and respond to it than those who didn’t suffer anxiety.
The study says, “People who score high on attachment anxiety quickly detect the presence of threat and then alert other group members to the danger and the need for protection. Supporting this line of reasoning, we found that participants high in attachment anxiety were less willing to be delayed on their way to deliver a warning message.”
It appears, therefore, that not only are anxious people able to keep themselves safe – they help others as well.
2. An increased empathy
People who suffer anxiety are more concerned with the feelings of others than normal people. A study(2) published in the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences found that people who deal with high anxiety have an increased sensitivity to the emotions of those around them.
The study concluded that those with anxiety “…may demonstrate a unique social-cognitive abilities profile with elevated cognitive empathy tendencies and high accuracy in affective mental state attributions.”
They have a heightened sense of empathy most people will not understand. People who deal with anxiety can also detect emotions better than others. Empathy is important; you have enough to make a difference in the lives of people that you may not even know.
3. An increased IQ
People with anxiety were found to be smarter by researchers from SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in NY(3).
That entire 'mind racing' we have has obviously got a payoff because it enables people with to know every possible outcome to just about every single situation.
It also maybe this increase of IQ for people with anxiety extends to being able to detect and see right through lies most of the time and are actually much braver than others may give them credit for.
They are the ones that, if something doesn’t quite make sense, they will be the first to point it out.
Another publication(4) confirms that ruminating – a major symptom of anxiety, creates a higher intelligence for those with anxiety.
In spite of how anxious people say they are, they are actually very capable at the same time. They are also prepared for anything and have the quickest reactions.
They are actually some of the strongest people we will ever know. And though it takes a minute for them to get the courage up they are quite capable.
People with anxiety are much more special than you might think, while they are overly anxious and overthinking things they are also able to achieve greatness all the while.
They are prepared for just about anything and are some of the strongest people
we will ever come across.
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REFERENCES:
http://portal.idc.ac.il/he/schools/psychology/homepage/documents/tsachi-scared%20saviors.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22120444
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3269637/pdf/fnevo-03-00008.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267336663_Intelligence_and_emotional_disorders_Is_the_worrying_and_ruminating_mind_a_more_intelligent_mind