Anxiety is a natural part of life – from brief moments of inner turmoil to a constant, painful hum. Is it just a psychological illness to be treated away? Or a sign that you’re a moral person?

As part of our ‘Ethics of’ series, we put anxiety under the microscope. It hasn’t always been treated as a mental illness. Philosophers Kierkegaard and Heidegger thought anxiety helped reveal what it meant to be human, with Tillich tying it closely to our need for meaning and community. Capitalism, competitiveness, work insecurity, the expectation to perform on social media…all of these seem perfectly tailored to drive us mad.

But is a little bit of madness just what we need? Must we think positively all the time? Or is anxiety actually a sign that someone is a moral person?