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The Gift of Anxiety
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The Gift of Anxiety

Harnessing the EASE Method to Turn Stuck Anxiety into Your Greatest Ally

Diante Fuchs
TCK, 2024
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Many people perceive anxiety as something negative that they need to eliminate from their lives. In truth, it’s a natural emotional response designed to keep you safe. So, instead of fighting anxious feelings, clinical psychologist Diante Fuchs argues, reframe how you think about them: as messengers, highlighting areas of your life that need attention. Fuchs’ EASE method offers a practical, step-by-step framework for distinguishing between useful anxiety and the kind that keeps you stuck in distress, and teaches you to respond to these signals in ways that restore calm to both body and mind.

Summary

Ordinary anxiety drives constructive action, but focusing on the anxiety itself can leave you stuck.

Ordinary anxiety is a natural emotional response — an inner alarm that alerts you to potential threats and helps you prepare and respond effectively. For example, you may feel nervous before an important meeting with your boss and new colleagues at a restaurant you’ve never visited. That unease motivates you to take specific steps — such as preparing for the meeting, dressing appropriately, and planning your route to arrive on time. These actions help you feel safe and allow the anxiety to fade. In this way, anxiety is useful: guiding your attention to important considerations, prompting empowering actions, and helping you navigate novel challenges calmly and confidently.

“Stuck anxiety” occurs when your inner alarm fails to turn off and begins signaling about itself. Instead of taking action when you feel anxious, you focus on physical symptoms, like dizziness, nausea, or a racing heart, which only amplifies your fears. You may worry not just about the event or circumstance sparking your anxious feelings but about being anxious, asking “what-if” questions such as, “...

About the Author

Diante Fuchs is a New Zealand-based clinical psychologist and international anxiety coach with more than 10 years of private practice experience.

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