Oklahoma Scatback

This is a quote by a guy named Ajahn Chah.  He sounds like a back-up halfback riding the bench at Oklahoma.  Maybe he returns punts now and again but that's about it.  Frankly, it sounds like a made-up name.  Good stuff, though.  Not my stuff.

"We human beings are constantly in combat, at war to escape the fact of being so limited, limited by so many circumstances we cannot control.  But instead of escaping, we continue to create suffering, waging war with good, waging war with evil, waging war with what is too small, waging war with what is too big, waging war with what is too short or too long, or right or wrong, courageously carrying on the battle."

This is me again.

It's just anxiety.  It has always been with me to a certain extent.  It comes and goes in its severity but it is almost always there.

It is part of me.  It isn't my enemy.  It's a psychological receptor that's giving me feedback about some injury to my psyche just like my finger sends a warning when I get to close to something hot.  It's a messenger.  Isn't there something somewhere about not shooting the messenger?

Talk to me, Anxiety.

I shouldn't try to control it.  I'm not going to deny it or fight it or try to make it go away.  I'm not mad at it.  I can sit with it.  See what it has to say even if I want to kill it dead.  Acknowledge it and move back to positive thoughts.

This is from the mind of a man who lost a long time job at an auto plant and was never able to replace the good union wages he had: "But that is part, he believes, of accepting that the old times are gone.  Part of not dwelling on what you can't change."

This message is everywhere.

I'm going to list some statistics here.  I would only be fabricating if I tried to supply the exact numbers but the general tenor is correct. . . 
A huge percentage of anti-anxiety medication, painkillers, and anti-depressants are consumed in the US, a country with only 5% of the world's population,
A huge percentage of ER room visits are from people suffering anxiety attacks who think they're dying.
A huge percentage of MD visits are from patients who are looking for some pharmacological solution to fear and anxiety.

"You're doing this to yourself."  SuperK