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Anxiety is Like a Caged Beast

One interesting method of understanding anxiety, or any other mental condition such as addiction, schizophrenia, or the desire to harm others etc… is to picture it as a beast. Plato, a Greek, and one of the original great philosophers pictured life as being this way, and his picture was quite accurate. Before one delves further into the metaphor, it is important to realize that all human beings play endless tricks and games on themselves and have some personal struggle that could be pictured a beast of some kind.

Anyway, back to the metaphor. Picture the anxiety condition that affects one as the most fearsome, intimidating, and ruthless beast that one can imagine. This beast has one eye, sharp teeth, deadly horns, and a look in its eyes that it is ready to kill. Next to this beast is a small human being who has a small whip in his hand. This small human can, with training, learn to subdue the beast and make it tame and useful for the person.

This picture is much like how one’s anxiety condition works. A person on some days may be able to think very logically and without influence from anxiety. At this point, the human in the metaphor has the beast tamed and laying gently at his side; though the beast is fully capable of dominating the human being, it nonetheless performs the human’s bidding because the human has learned how to handle the beast and tame it. This represents an anxiety condition that is being properly managed by the person in question.

However, at other times, the beast is completely out of control. It snarls and stares at the human, and many times it is able to hurt the physically inferior human. This is what an anxiety condition looks like when it is running the show. It tells people how to live their lives and what they need to do, rather than a person’s solid reasoning, which has the potential to help a person to lead the best and happiest life.

In many cases, the beast is completely out of control and has never been in control. This is what anxiety looks like for many. Many have never learned how to tame the beast and put it in its place. Rather, it has run all over the person and make a mess of his or her life.

The beast only knows what is best for itself; it does not know what is best for the human and does not have the capacity for learning what is. It is the responsibility of the human in the metaphor to learn what is best for the human, and where in that human’s life that beast belongs.

Sometimes, the beast, being a beast and not knowing any better, will fly out of control without the slightest provocation. The human needs to quickly take care of it and put the beast back in its place.

The best place for the human being to be in is to have the beast totally trained to perform any task the human might require, and without question or hesitation. The human knows what is best for the human him or herself, and also what is best for other humans. The human knows best how the beast can help the human or other humans. In some cases, anxiety can be very helpful, alerting a person of a dangerous situation, and this can be a very useful function of the beast in that it protects the human.

As noted in the opening paragraph, humans struggle with many different conditions that can be equated to the beast metaphor. Addictions can totally run amok, destroying a person’s life and the lives of others; however, they can be properly managed so that they can teach lessons to the person, and those surrounding him or her, that is affected by the addiction. Anxiety is just like addiction, or any other mental disorder in this respect. If the human affected by it is not taught to properly manage the condition, the condition can totally run over the person and harm his or her life and the lives of many others. However, a properly trained person can manage anxiety and its effects so that they are mostly helpful and cause only minimal difficulty in the life of that person. Good luck out there, and start letting that beast know who is in charge!

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