How to pronounce "swerves"

So the most important thing to know about anxiety straight out of the gate,

is that it has gotten an unnecessarily bad rap,

as has happened for a lot of negative emotions.

But you should know that psychologists have long understood

that anxiety has both healthy forms and unhealthy forms.

And a lot of the anxiety we experience in the day-to-day is healthy.

OK, so what makes anxiety healthy?

Anxiety is healthy when it is serving as an alarm system

that lets us know that something's not right,

that it gets our attention and helps us to keep ourselves safe.

So if you're driving and somebody swerves and cuts you off

and you have a surge of anxiety, that's a good thing.

It will focus your attention,

it will help you be safe around that driver,

maybe take evasive maneuvers.

But it's good for you to respond.

If you're entirely indifferent or relaxed in that setting,

it's not as safe.

So we look for anxiety to be of help to us, to guide us

and to let us know what we're supposed to be doing and not doing.

I care for a lot of teenagers clinically, and, you know, I will say to them,