Wacky Facts by Agent K #29: Did You Know That Being Neurotic May Help You Live Longer?

Like most of you, I was also taught that stress is really harmful for our health from a young age. Unfortunately, this never stopped me from being a super hyper and anxious teenager, an insomniac college student, and a hysterically stressed lawyer later in life. It has been truly OUTRAGEOUS...

My therapist's diagnosis back in 2009 was generalized anxiety disorder and underlying neurosis involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. 

Keep in mind that I had informed him about my secret dates with Mariah Carey at the time, but he took it as a joke instead of  hallucinations. Oh well!!!

His advice was simple, loud and CLEAR: "Find a way to manage and reduce your stress levels or you will end up dead before you turn 35."  

Almost a decade later, I am 36 years-young and science suggests that I may live longer than my perfectly sane and calm therapist. F$$$ Yeahhhhhhh!!!

 

Dear therapist...

The Menu of the Day 

Apparently, if you are one of those lads who are biting the shit out of yours nails, sweat like a pig when outside is snowing, or nervously recycle your words and thoughts like Monk, you may be in good luck after all. A new  longitudinal study has showed that neurotic people tend to live longer than chilled out people! 

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh and University of Southampton examined data from more than half a million people in Britain, ages 37 to 73. The participants to the study were asked questions about their lifestyle behaviors, medical conditions and how healthy they felt as Time reports. 

The researchers also conducted a personality test to estimate the levels of neuroticism. As the doctors noted, for some patients things didn't go as smoothly as some may think (from the title of this article) and neurosis will most likely ruin the quality of your life at times, no matter how long you may live. 

Contrary to Intuition Results 

Regardless, the findings of the study are against all common sense. “Our findings show that the relationship varies depending on how people rate their health,”  lead author Dr. Catharine Gale told Time.  

And added, “If people rated their health as excellent, then being high in neuroticism had no relationship with their risk of death. But among people who rated their health as fair or poor, being high in neuroticism seemed to have a small protective effect against dying prematurely.” 

To put it simply, neurotic people worry much more about their health than the average person (let alone the chilled out type), a fact that often leads them to their doctor's office. As a result of this, neurotic people will get an earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment of a possible and unexpressed heart disease or even cancer. 

Despite the surprising results and the great relationship between neurotic people and lower death rates, Dr. Gale suggests that neuroticism is not a good thing and insists that happiness and positive emotions is the best "drug" for someone's health! Don't we all agree with her on this? 

References:

When Is Higher Neuroticism Protective Against Death? Findings From UK Biobank

Being Neurotic May Help You Live Longer

Neurotic People Seem To Live Longer Than Chilled Out People

Comparisons to Larry David have never seemed more complimentary

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