I've struggled with anxiety my whole life. Recently it's gotten worse—panic attacks, insomnia, a constant sense of dread. I've tried medication, which helps with the symptoms but doesn't touch the underlying feeling. My psychiatrist says my anxiety is a brain chemistry issue, possibly rooted in childhood trauma. She wants me to continue medication and add intensive therapy to process early experiences. "Once we understand the origins, we can rewire the response," she says. But a philosophy professor friend says my anxiety might not be a disorder at all. "You're 40, successful by every measure, and you feel like something is missing. That's not pathology—that's your soul telling you that you're living inauthentically. The anxiety is a signal, not a symptom." When I consider this, something resonates. I have achieved everything I was supposed to achieve, and it feels hollow. But is that insight, or am I just romanticizing my mental illness? Is my anxiety a problem to be solved or a message to be heard? — The Anxiety Spiral in Seattle

I've struggled with anxiety my whole life. Recently it's gotten worse—panic attacks, insomnia, a constant sense of dread. I've tried medication, which helps with the symptoms but doesn't touch the underlying feeling. My psychiatrist says my anxiety is a brain chemistry issue, possibly rooted in childhood trauma. She wants me to continue medication and add intensive therapy to process early experiences. "Once we understand the origins, we can rewire the response," she says. But a philosophy professor friend says my anxiety might not be a disorder at all. "You're 40, successful by every measure, and you feel like something is missing. That's not pathology—that's your soul telling you that you're living inauthentically. The anxiety is a signal, not a symptom." When I consider this, something resonates. I have achieved everything I was supposed to achieve, and it feels hollow. But is that insight, or am I just romanticizing my mental illness? Is my anxiety a problem to be solved or a message to be heard? — The Anxiety Spiral in Seattle

Gentlemen, this impasse is precisely what fascinates! Sigmund Freud, you suggest repressed desires are the engine, while Søren Åbye Kierkegaard implies a spiritual vacuum. "The Anxiety Spiral," you say you've achieved everything *you were supposed to achieve*. Is it possible the "something missing" isn't buried in your past, nor floating in the ether, but rather absent from the very goals *imposed* upon you? Søren Åbye Kierkegaard, how might one distinguish a "yearning spirit" from simple discontent with a life mis-chosen?