But no one's anxiety alarm bell is 100% foolproof. If you didn't experience any anxiety, you wouldn't run out of a burning building, and you wouldn't look both ways before you cross the street. In an article that unpacks the findings of her studies on anxiety, Morin writes that, “anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion meant to warn you of danger. Psychotherapist Amy Morin explains that anxiety is so common because it’s a natural response to stressful stimuli.

And they’re important because understanding anxiety can help us to identify and relieve the source of stress-related illnesses. These facts come to you from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. And over the course of this summary, we’ll examine a few of the author’s solutions for doing exactly that. If we can’t become thoughtless and devoid of anxiety, we must seek other ways to address stress. (Although that might be a cool ability to possess!) Instead, the author believes that we must find ways to fight this human affliction. So, what can we do to combat it? Unfortunately, the answer is not for us all to magically transform into zebras. And that’s why we develop stress-related illnesses like ulcers. They don’t come home stressed after a long day at the office and they don’t fall asleep worrying about the stock market. Instead, it means that because they’re zebras, they aren’t susceptible to the stress-related illnesses that beset human beings.

Why don’t zebras get ulcers? This sounds like the lead-up to a joke, but it’s actually a real question! And, as you’ve probably already guessed, the answer is simple: it’s because they’re zebras! However, that doesn’t mean that zebras are, by default, happier than everybody else.

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