Anxiety

Anxiety is the originator of all Mental Disorders. What we don’t know yet for sure, is the biology of anxiety. We know the triggers, although it is still unclear in what areas of the brain anxiety originates.

One of the most entertained hypotheses on the origins of Anxiety are the dopaminergic pathways involved in reward.
OCD, an omnipresent Compulsion in Anxiety, would appear to deplete dopamine by repetitive rewarding behavior.
Repetition is always tiring, even when producing positive effects.
I don’t believe in repetition, a mere automation to me excluding any thought process. In popular culture,  “learning by heart”, still a common practice between students just to get the grades. 

However, OCD is not only related to learning.
It affects hygiene, rituals…
Showering twice a day is draining, washing hands for anything we touch is daunting, etc.
A rewarding exercise becomes exhausting when long repeated.
Washing hands when dirty is rewarding. Washing hands half hour when not needed depletes dopamine hence increasing anxiety.

Based on this model, lack of Reward would be the cause of anxiety.
Too simple to be true.
The dilemma remains whether the neurotypical doesn’t indulge in Repetition for Reward.

Speculation is that anxious people don’t know how to “consume reward”, therefore repeating the same ritual over and over again

At this stage, we must enter academic literature which is not the nature of this article.

I welcome additional feedback from readers.