Anxiety can be used as a motivation for change. We can also blunt our anxiety by creating the illusion that there is security in life. Existential therapists distinguish between normal anxiety and neurotic anxiety. Being mentally healthy is living as much as possible without neurotic anxiety and accepting and tolerating existential anxiety. If we have the courage to face life and ourselves we may be frightened, but we will be able to change.
Existential anxiety is a constructive form of normal anxiety.
This anxiety is experience when we become aware of our freedom and the consequences of accepting or rejecting freedom. Anxiety is associated with the excitement accompanying the birth of a new idea. We experience anxiety when we use our freedom to leave what we know to go where we are unfamiliar. Facing existential anxiety involves viewing life as an adventure rather than hiding behind securities that seem to offer protection. If an individual can learn to live without props and to tolerate ambiguity they can find their own way without being dependent on others.