My friends tell me I have a twisted way of seeing things (they must love me).
Well, since I wouldn’t want to shatter their vision of me, I will continue from where I left off last week and examine another aspect of anxiety as I complete my great animal psychology trilogy. It’s no Lord of the Rings but it’s the best I could do with my limited talents. I call the trilogy Two Rodents and a Fish.
The two rodent stories of course are Squirrel Psychology and Chipmunk Psychology. The fish story follows.
Goldfish Psychology: Survival of the fraidiest
(source: Dans la tête d’un petit poisson rouge. Journal Métro: June 23, 2009)
I remember the first real pets I had when I was a kid; a pair of goldfish I bought with my own money. I named them Goldie and Charlie. I can’t remember if I bought them a nice goldfish bowl but knowing my family, I probably took my mother’s advice and just filled up an old Mason jar with water. Even though the fish would have had a home that smelled subtly of tomato sauce, who could argue with the cost savings?
One morning I eagerly came out of my room and ran over to the counter to check on my fishies and to give them a few flakes of food. Alas, Goldie was lying dead on the melamine counter next to the Mason jar! I was heartbroken. It seems that at some point during the night he jumped to see what was on the other side of the glass barrier. It turned out to be a melamine death!
Curiosity killed the goldfish
I may be anthropomorphizing here, but I suspect the goldfish was probably doing what all of us animals do – we explore our environments. If we were living in a natural environment, we would be governed by two survival instincts. The first involves the need to explore – to seek out better circumstances or discover new sources of food. The second instinct is the anxiety response. Anxiety is what makes us vigilant of dangers and watchful of predators. While both instincts are necessary, an excess of one or the other can be harmful.
In my last column, I wrote of a poor chipmunk that, in response to anxiety, decided to return to safety only to be crushed under my bicycle tire. Had the chipmunk been less anxious, it would not have panicked and turned around. Goldie, on the other hand, died from not having enough anxiety. He was obviously not worried about what was on the other side of the barrier and went to take a look.
Lessons from the animal kingdom
Lessons from the animal kingdom, be it chipmunks or goldfish, teach us about human nature. Our fundamental makeup is comprised of a balance of traits, including anxiety, which serve us well. However, there are no guarantees. These traits and instincts vary in degrees within each of us and inevitably interact with the circumstances we face – sometimes to our benefit, and sometimes to our detriment.
Speaking of benefits, I’m pretty sure that chipmunk would still be alive today if he were the one living in the Mason jar…smelling a little of tomatoes and basil but alive nonetheless.
Tagged as Anxiety, survival instinct.
Posted in Anxiety.
Posted on 07 Jul 2009
