Advantages To Being Anxious?

This is an article titled, "The 8 Most Unexpected Advantages of Anxiety." I found it rather comforting in some areas.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/12/the-8-most-unexpected-advantages-of-anxiety.php

If you don't wish to click the link, here is the list (with my comments for clarification. I use the pronoun "we" because I definitely have anxieties.) :

1. People will trust you more (Anxiety shows others that we have virtue.)
2. Fewer fatal accidents (We over-think enough to avoid many dangers.)
3. Stronger memory (We think we have a poor memory, but we don't.)
4. Better results in tests - sometimes (We have more motivation taking tests.)
5. Good friends (We have closer friends than we realize.)
6. Not appearing that anxious (We think we're acting worse than we are.)
7. More fun (We have more fun than we think we will.)
8. The human race needs anxious people (We have higher survival rates.)

I thought it was a nice article to remind people that, while anxieties are real and can cause major problems, it's not all bleak, and there are positives to being anxious.

Huh. Never thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing.

Can I be a pain and dispute some of these?
1. Have found that when I am highly anxious people look at me as if I am weird and so are less inclined to trust me.
2. More fatal accidents-because we are so wound up over possible dangers, we may be less alert to real dangers.
3. Not sure about memory.
4. I agree with the 'sometimes'; as anxiety has often caused me to do worse ina test than I should have done.
5. High levels of anxiiety will scare away a lot of people who can't relate to it.
6. I do appear anxious when I am highly anxious.
7. Hard to relax enough for fun when highly anxious.
8. We may have higher survial rates (possibly not though)but who would want to live an extra few years if it were to be spent ina state of high anxiety.

Case said:

4. Better results in tests - sometimes (We have more motivation taking tests.)

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Oh I feel like this is true. All the times I didn't feel like studying this year, I had a dreaded thought of "getting kicked out of my program" at school, and that would suddenly make me study. Turns out I got the highest overall grade in my class this semester too.

5. Good friends (We have closer friends than we realize.)
6. Not appearing that anxious (We think we're acting worse than we are.)

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Not true in my case. :/ I still have no real friends and people have told me at times "you look uncomfortable"

Having anxiety helps me to avoid bad situations and bad people. It's not a fun thing to have though.

I think anxiety is a cognitive emotion, a survival tool hardwired into us. Being anxious when there's something out there that's dangerous is healthy and normal.

But oh gosh, when my anxiety starts twisting its way through me for no good reason except that I'm irrationally terrified of giving a program to my gardening group, all of whom know me, then anxiety doesn't seem to serve too much of a useful role, does it?

So there's healthy anxiety and unhealthy anxiety. Managing it is the tricky part.

Number 5 is definitely true for me.

I think it's a balance. Some stress is useful to help motivate us, but too much of it can be overwhelming and soul destroying. If you're going through a bad period of anxiety I think the best thing is to recognise it for what it is and try and cope with it. I'm on anti anxiety meds now as my anxiety is currently through the roof!! but every day i'm trying to tell myself that i'll get through it and cope, as i've done before. Bit of a miserly existence though, granted!

As for the 'everything is a bonus to what we expect' theory, I think that can be damaging in itself as it makes us vulnerable to expoitation. I know I lead a pretty stressful life, and in the past I think men have picked up on the fact i'm used to/accepting of things being stressful so have seen fit to use it to their advantage. Just a personal experience of course. What I really wanted out of a relationship was for someone to be able to show a bit of compassion or understanding when life gets stressful. Which i'm told is a healthy attribute to look for in a partner.

This is a bunch of crap. This may aply to some. Wishfull thinking.

My anxiety caused me an AWESOME weight loss.... starting my meds ( many years ago) put a stop to that and put it in reverse! Being kinny was the only thing i liked about my anxiety disorder!