People with anxiety seem to need more personal space, even more than anyone else.

Do you have anxiety? Well, you may have noticed that you need a lot of personal space. Let me address this with an example of your personal space and what it represents for your safety. For example, personal space is sometimes referred to as a dynamic field in martial arts. This can help you get a big picture of the shelter around you.

Dynamic field is a concept covered in Aikido textbooks that represents a person’s personal space. In Aikido, you want someone to break through your field because the art is mastered with close-range techniques.

Having our individual dynamic fields penetrated can be one of the scariest things for those who suffer from panic states – quite the opposite of aikido, which needs to be penetrated in order to work its magic.

When I connect the two, I secretly imagine eliminating the enemy that comes into my domain, capturing my fears, and in the process, overcoming them. Unfortunately, life is not that easy for people with anxiety, as we have difficulty distinguishing what others really want from us. So, I’m putting my aikido book back on the shelf, and I’ll cover this in another book.

Our personal spaces

So, how big is this field of protection that surrounds us every day?

Well, according to the Journal of Neuroscience, it depends on the person. For normal, non-anxious people, this space generally ranges between 8 and 16 inches. People with anxiety need much more personal space.

Giandomenico Lanetti, a neuroscientist at University College London, said:

There is a very strong relationship between the size of personal space and a person’s level of anxiety.

Try it!
Now we know that personal space varies from person to person. With that being said, I think we should try to understand why. What better way to find out than to test the theory, which is more than just a theory now. This is what we discovered.

The study participants were 15 healthy people who had electrodes attached to them, which delivered electric shocks. When the participants extended their hands, they experienced a shock, which caused them to blink. For people with anxiety, the further they travel, the stronger the shock and the stronger the reaction. This rapid reaction goes from the brainstem directly to the muscles, bypassing where conscious thoughts occur, the cerebral cortex.

The results make sense—one can imagine that an anxious person would be less inclined to want to crowd into a crowded subway car or a crowded party.

Eyelashes are also more noticeable a few inches from the face, but not by much. Apparently, the strength of the reflex increases near the face.

Nicholas Holmes, a researcher at the University of Reading in England, said:

It wonderfully illustrates how vision, touch, posture and movement work together so quickly and in close coordination… in controlling movement and defending the body.

These studies are not new!
Animals have previously been studied to determine the mechanisms of their personal spaces. For example, zebras show a noticeable difference when one is more anxious than the other. An anxious zebra, when a lion tries to approach, will need a huge flight area. This allows greater response time to formulate an escape plan. Humans are very similar and sometimes they go to extremes. This happens when personal space turns into claustrophobia and agoraphobia.

Other circumstances play a role in this as well. Cultures vary around the world, and they all tend to have unique ideas about the supposed size of personal space. Some humans enjoy very close contact while others prefer little or none at all during social times.

People with anxiety are more likely to relate to a society that advocates less touching or kissing. Of course, this was my personal opinion. Personally, I’m not keen on greetings and kisses. Then again, that’s just me.

Relationships can also place conditions on personal space. In order to measure trust, sometimes your small field is the indicator. The more confident you are, the closer you will get, it’s that simple.

As interesting as the concept of dynamic range is, it can’t put the entire picture into perspective. Yes, we need a good defense system, and yes, we should respect personal space, but there comes a time in everyone’s life where…