Anxiety and Excitement | @caroline-cavanagh | The Anxiety Alchemist

13 May 2026 · 2 min

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In this brief talk, Caroline Cavanagh explores the often‑confused relationship between anxiety and excitement. She notes that both emotions share similar physiological sensations—butterflies in the stomach, sweaty palms, racing heart—but differ in the direction of internal energy. Using a simple fight‑or‑flight metaphor, she explains that when the body’s response feels like a pull backward, urging avoidance, it signals anxiety; when it feels like a subtle push forward, encouraging engagement, it signals excitement. She acknowledges that the distinction isn’t always binary; many experiences contain a mix of both, and listeners are encouraged not to automatically label the feeling as anxiety without checking for an underlying dose of excitement.

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Anxiety and excitement. It seems as if the world generally, certainly in the Western world, it's all about anxiety and we forget about this lovely thing called exciting, almost to the point that people are embarrassed to say they're excited as if it's something wrong. But the chemical feelings inside the body are really, really close. It's the butterflies in the tummy, it's the sweaty palms, it's the racing heart. And the easiest way I've defined, or to work out which one is it, is if everything inside of you is screaming, don't do it! That's anxiety. Whereas if you know you're going to do it anyway, then it's excitement. You're, you're going to go to a party, yeah? If it's anxiety, the thought of going to the party will actually cause you to rock backwards, 'cause that's our internal energy going, move away. The flight element of the fight or flight response is always the preferable one. Whereas if you rock ever so slightly forwards, that's because you want to do it. So if you know you're gonna go to that party, even if it's difficult, that energy calling you forward, that's excitement, it's not anxiety. And this is not black and white, there are shades of gray. You might be a little bit excited and a lot anxious, But don't just assume you're anxious. There may, may well be a really good dose of excitement in there too.