Why Does Pablo Have Anxiety?
Paleolithic Anxiety in Modern Times
Pablo woke up to the soft sound of an alarm drilling into his ear. He checked his mobile phone anxiously, full of emails, urgent messages, and payment reminders. His autonomic nervous system, always so perceptive, assumed a hungry bear was growling outside his cave.
Skipping breakfast, he mentally reviewed his day in the shower. His paranoid autonomic system, as usual, concluded that a rival clan was planning to steal his campfire.
As he got dressed, he read news about inflation, wars, and catastrophes. His primitive brain, without hesitation, assumed the world’s end was just around the corner and that mammoths were now extinct for good.
Out on the street, he was caught in traffic amid shouts and honking. His autonomic system cleverly concluded he was trapped in a canyon by an enemy tribe with very sharp spears.
At the office, a pointless argument with a colleague upset him so much that his nervous system decided Pablo was in the midst of a ritual battle for tribal leadership.
The urgent call from his boss did not help matters: his autonomic system now pictured himself cast out of the group and left alone in the tundra for being useless.
Later, when he had to choose which employees to keep on his team, his body interpreted it as deciding who would be left behind for the hyenas during migration.
A domestic argument about expenses put his nervous system on high alert, believing his partner was fiercely disputing the last piece of dried meat saved for the winter.
At home, in front of the TV, the news once again convinced his primitive brain that enemy hordes were lurking near the village, ready to destroy his precarious hut.
Finally, exhausted and unable to sleep, he heard his mobile phone vibrate one last time as he went to bed. His autonomic system, ever the optimist, interpreted it as the stealthy approach of a predator finally closing in on his shelter, ending a perfectly peaceful day in Pablo's comfortable modern life.