I think I know where anxiety philosophically comes from...

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I was listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqvPunXtzb0 in the background (I'm also constantly trying to think up solutions to my life's ailments) and realized that anxiety, which for me became about 10x worse since a decade or so ago, could be due to the fear of impending death.

That may sound simplistic and not very practical, but how else can I explain why I feel pure fear when I can hear my neighbours' doors closing? My mind immediately goes back to when my whole existence was shaken violently by my parents' closing of doors and that was exactly a time when I felt my life was in real peril. Then there's the neverending stream of cars outside that I absolutely dread and hate... why? Well, same association of noise in accordance with death too, but... I was hit by a car once. I don't *actively* fear being hit again... I haven't developed a conscious phobia, but the association is still there.

Does this make sense to any of you? If you try to match up your anxiety to a symbolic connection for death, does it fit?

I see what you mean. I have often thought about this over the years and I also think that anxiety is based on a fear of death. Don't have the energy to explain it in more detail at the moment but I would be happy to discuss it by pm at a later time if you need to talk.

As I understand it, anxiety is usually attributed to animal fight or flight instinct sustained over a lengthy period of time. For animals, this lasts until they are no longer in immediate danger. Short term. A few minutes. For people, sometimes the mind can sustain the defense mechanism far longer than it is designed to last. Days. Even weeks. Sometimes people have faulty criteria for imminent danger, trigger defense mechanism when not needed or desired. That is anxiety.