Is Your Generalized Anxiety Disorder Keeping You In 'No Mans Land?'

No Man's Land

In tennis, there is an area of the court called "no man's land," located within the two feet in front of the baseline. This is the worst place to stand if you want to be able to return the ball. However, new players don't know this and naturally tend to stand there. Instead of hitting the shots at the net or behind the baseline like the pros, they stand right where their opponent can hammer the ball at their feet, rendering them unable to return any hits. It is not until they learn not to stand there and learn the right places to stand instead that they can return the incoming shots, and achieve a successful game.

Likewise, there is a similar place in life called "no man's land," where it's easier not to feel anything. In my experience working with people through the end the anxiety program, I've found that anxiety sufferers have the least amount of emotions throughout any given week due to the fear of feeling. They do this purposely. The fear of more loss, or more disappointment keeps anxiety sufferers in an emotional "no man's land," a place where depersonalization can manifest and the closest ones to that person just don't understand why this person is so emotionless. Basically, if they stay in that "middle area" where they don't feel too happy or too sad, then they won't feel disappointed in the end. Of the few emotions these people do feel, most are negative.

A person who does not suffer from anxiety avoids "no man's land" where they feel nothing. They are more willing to explore the highs and lows of daily emotions, since the fear for them is not present because they are willing to experience all the emotions life offers. Also they know how to bring themselves out of a negative state quickly, where as a generalized anxiety sufferer has a much more difficult time getting out of a negative funk.

Gradual Negative Build

During the ages of 26 to 31, I was consumed by negativity. My view of the world was all bad. It wasn't an all-of-a-sudden thing; it was gradually built up by listening and accepting the internal mental chatter that went on every day. I generalized people very quickly, and during those rough years, everyone was the same. I believed no one cared whether I lived or died. What an awful way to go through life! Your view of everything in this life creates your future experiences.

During those six years, I received more of what I complained about, more of what I feared, and more experiences with negative people. It just seemed like there was this certain energy to the world, and optimistic people attracted more optimistic people, bored people attracted more bored people, and in my case negative and pessimistic people attracted more negative and pessimistic people. This can all be attributed to our life experiences and the way we interpret data; the judgement we make of things that ultimately gets stored in our minds. We play the same record over and over again day after day, without many stimulating experiences.

From Negative to Positive

Changing the way you VIEW something to bring about a more positive view can have an amazing snow ball effect, and it's not uncommon to see the positive difference in other aspects of life, without even thinking about it. But it can't be that easy, can it? You may be thinking, there has to be something more complex to end my generalized anxiety disorder... well, their really isn't.