the-mighty-birdy:

friendly-neighborhood-patriarch:

leafgreenlps:

friendly-neighborhood-patriarch:

sindri42:

cryptideridan:

kyleehenke:

how did my ancestors survive the brutal unforgiving wilderness when I get anxiety sweats from going to Target

to be fair im sure your ancestors would have the exact same reaction going to a Target

A lot of the symptoms of an anxiety disorder in the modern world, constantly planning through worst case scenarios, hypervigilance, stuff like that? In a pre-industrial society they would make you much less likely to be killed by wild animals or environmental hazards, and likely a very effective hunter/gatherer.

The problem is that these very useful things evolution left us with are suddenly useless or detrimental when applied to a lifestyle that’s so different from anything just a few thousand years ago. Your instincts are screaming about holy shit is that a tiger when you’re walking down a perfectly safe street, making you miserable, while all these dumb fucks who would totally be eaten by a tiger if there was a tiger here live happy comfortable lives in their 100% tiger-free environment.

so basically you’re telling me I probably would be dead because I’m not fulla anxieteee?

hm.

I think it’s less “if you don’t have anxiety all the time you’d be dead” and more of  a “Now that there’s no reason for our brains to be on the lookout for threats constantly, they can sometimes go haywire and make us anxious about everything and think that everything is a threat.”

Interesting

I gotta ask my brain how the hell “one on one conversation” somehow translates to “holy shit it’s a tiger I’m gonna die”