How to Use Stoicism for Anxiety?

Question

How can Stoicism help with anxiety? The question is practical, and the answer is practical: the Stoics developed a discipline of the anxious mind that remains one of the most effective in the philosophical tradition, and its three practices — the dichotomy of control, the examination of judgments, and the practice of the present — speak directly to the experience of anxiety.

Quick Answer

Stoicism offers three practices for anxiety. First, the dichotomy of control: examine what you are anxious about, and ask what is up to you and what is not. Anxiety is almost always about what is not up to us — the future, the outcomes, the opinions of others — and the discipline is to return attention to what is up to us, where action is possible and anxiety has no purchase. Second, the examination of judgments: on the Stoic analysis, anxiety is a judgment — the judgment that something terrible is imminent — and the judgment can be examined. Ask: what exactly is threatened? Is it a good, or an indifferent? What can I do now? The examination breaks the automatic character of the anxiety. Third, the practice of the present: anxiety lives in the future, and the Stoic practice of confining attention to the present — "confine yourself to the present," as Marcus Aurelius wrote — removes the future that anxiety feeds on. The present moment is almost never as terrible as the imagined future.

Historical Wisdom

The Stoics understood anxiety — they called it by the name of the underlying passion, fear (phobos) — and they analyzed it with precision. Epictetus taught that "it is not the things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them," and his whole discipline of desire and aversion is a therapy of the anxious mind: the anxious person desires what is not up to them, and the cure is to desire only what is. Marcus Aurelius practiced the therapy daily in the Meditations: "Do not let the future disturb you — you will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." Seneca added the counsel of preparation: "Whatever can happen at any time can happen today" — the recognition that the imagined catastrophe has been faced in advance, and the anxiety is the refusal to face it. The tradition anticipated the modern cognitive therapy of anxiety: the insight that anxiety is a thought, and that the thought can be examined, is the foundation of cognitive behavioral therapy, which the Stoics developed in philosophical form two thousand years earlier.

Philosophical Perspectives

The Stoic analysis of anxiety rests on the theory of the passions. Anxiety is fear — the judgment that something evil is imminent — and like every passion it rests on a false judgment about what is good and evil. The object of the anxiety is almost always an indifferent: the outcome of the exam, the opinion of the boss, the state of the world, the future of the people we love. These things matter, but they are not goods in the Stoic sense: they are not in our power, and our happiness does not depend on them. The correction of the judgment is the beginning of the therapy: the anxious person learns to say, "This is not a good or an evil; it is an indifferent, and my task is not to control it but to act well in relation to it."

The Stoic discipline adds the practice. The discipline of desire trains us to want only what is up to us — the good, which is in our power — and to release the craving for what is not. The discipline of action directs our energy to what can be done now: the preparation, the effort, the conduct. The discipline of assent trains us to examine the impressions — the anxious thought, the catastrophic image — before accepting them: to see the thought as a thought, not as a fact. And the practice of the present — the discipline of prosoche — keeps attention where life actually is, in the only moment that exists.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Epictetus: the judgment is the target — "it is not the things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them." From Marcus Aurelius: the present is the cure — "confine yourself to the present." From Seneca: preparation is the release — "whatever can happen at any time can happen today." And from the modern Stoic therapists: the discipline complements professional care — for clinical anxiety, Stoicism is a complement to, not a substitute for, the treatment of a qualified professional.

Practical Application

The Stoic practice for anxiety has a concrete form. When anxiety arises, run the Stoic examination. First, the dichotomy: what am I anxious about? Is it up to me, or not? If it is up to me, act — the action is the cure. If it is not up to me, release it — the worry is wasted effort. Second, the judgment: what exactly am I afraid will happen? Is it a genuine evil, or an indifferent? What can I do now, and what is the reasonable preparation? Third, the present: bring attention back to the present moment — the breath, the body, the task at hand — because the future that anxiety depicts does not exist yet, and the present is almost never as terrible as the imagined future. Practice these daily, not only in the crisis: the morning reflection prepares the mind, the evening review corrects the judgments, and the daily discipline of attention makes the anxious mind less anxious over time.

Quotes

Epictetus states the foundation: "It is not the things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them." Marcus Aurelius states the practice: "Confine yourself to the present." And Seneca states the preparation: "Whatever can happen at any time can happen today."

Related Questions

• How to Deal with Anxiety — the wider wisdom on anxiety.
• What Is the Stoic Dichotomy of Control? — the first practice.
• How to Practice Stoic Meditation — the daily discipline.
• Stoicism and Emotions — the theory of feeling behind the practice.