Anxiety is Rigidity

And stubbornness, and irritability, and looping, elaborate contingency plans. Not just fear.

For years, I pictured anxiety as a thin woman with a narrow face, Shelley Duvall-ish, wringing her hands over every little thing. I imagined that anxiety was weakness, and frailty; a mousy voice in the corner of the room. Anxious people had no sense of self, it seemed; they…