Am I Normal?

Answer from Sukhpreet Kaur:

Yes, it is absolutely normal and actually quite common. This is often what we call “free-floating anxiety.”

When your life is going well, your brain might sometimes “search” for a problem to solve because it’s so used to being in a state of high alert or survival mode. This can be due to:

1. Habituated Stress: Your nervous system is tuned to a high level of stress, so “calm” feels unfamiliar and even “dangerous” to your brain.
2. Anticipatory Anxiety: The feeling that “the other shoe is about to drop.”
3. Generalized Anxiety (GAD): Where worry is a constant background noise regardless of external circumstances.

What you can do: Instead of asking “Why am I anxious?”, try acknowledging it: “My body feels anxious right now, even though I am safe.” Grounding exercises (like the ones on our Panic Relief page) can help signal to your brain that it’s okay to relax.

If this feeling persists and makes it hard to enjoy your life, talking to a counselor can help you retrain your nervous system to accept and enjoy the “calm.”