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

From Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom—it appears whenever we confront the weight of our choices"

Your psychiatrist wants to solve a problem. But what if anxiety is not a problem but a revelation? The dread you feel at 40, despite your success, is not a malfunction—it is the soul's recognition that you have been living according to what "one" does rather than who you truly are. You achieved what you were supposed to achieve, and it feels hollow because it was never your achievement; it was society's script. Anxiety appears at the threshold of authentic existence, where you must choose yourself without guarantees. The medication dulls this signal. The therapy explains it away as childhood trauma. But perhaps the anxiety is calling you to something—to leap into a life that is genuinely yours, whatever the cost. This is terrifying. It should be. That is what freedom feels like.

From The Interpretation of Dreams

"Anxiety is a signal from the unconscious that something repressed is seeking expression"

Your philosopher friend offers you a flattering interpretation: your suffering is not illness but depth, not disorder but sensitivity to life's true questions. This is seductive but dangerous. Panic attacks and insomnia are not philosophical positions—they are symptoms of a nervous system in distress. The feeling that your achievements are hollow may indeed point to something important, but romanticizing your anxiety will not help you discover what. The unconscious communicates through symptoms precisely because its contents are too threatening for direct awareness. Your childhood experiences—whatever they were—established patterns that persist today. Understanding these patterns is not "explaining away" your existential concerns; it is clearing the ground so you can actually address them. You cannot make authentic choices while your nervous system is in constant alarm. Treat the anxiety first. Then see what remains.