Boice reflection

I won't lie, I struggle with anxiety. Whenever a big test is coming up, I can hardly sleep (hence why I am up at this ungodly hour). I lay there in bed, tossing and turning, my mind won't stop freaking out and worrying. Now this is a different anxiety than others have, but I feel this intense mental blocking is the same. With that being said, I liked a lot of what Boice was saying. The idea of pulling a Thomas the Train and using positive thoughts to block out the negatives ("I think I can, I think I can."), is something I feel is a great idea, in theory. I find it much harder to actually pull that off and reassure myself of the positives when I am anxious. I was sort of taken aback when Boice said he rejected treating anxiety with drug therapy because it is "addictive and soporific." If we wanted to reject the idea that using drugs to cope with problems such as anxiety or depression then we'd be missing out on most of America's great literature. Alcoholics drink for many reasons, many alcoholics think it helps with their anxiety or depression (even if it is technically a depressant I feel most of us have felt adverse side effects). Here's a list off the top of my head of famous authors and athletes that were either addicted or using drug therapy: Hunter S Thompson, Tennessee Williams, Poe, Capote, Kerouac, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, David Foster Wallace, J.K, Rowling, Stephen King, Zack Greinke and Ricky Williams. All of those people had their problems solved in one way or another by using drugs. I won't argue it can't be destructive, but I would argue there's a strong correlation between dependence and overcoming problems.

Sorry about my rant and back to Boice. Being the logical minded, rational thinker I try to be, I liked that he brought that up. I've always felt that using logic and reasoning helps eliminate the excess emotions we sometimes get caught up in, and I was happy to see Boice actually acknowledged that. Like Boice was saying, it's not bad to have emotions, but we need to use rational thinking to moderate their levels. I feel our meditations in class have really helped with that.