I saw something today about procrastination being a response to anxiety. And it made me wonder - could that be the root of my problems?

I get stressed and anxious so I procrastinate. By procrastinating I mean I am effectively dulling the feelings of stress by engaging in activities which take my mind if it by engaging my other senses. So I am shifting my mind away from my “threat system” to “soothing mechanism”.

Those behaviours eventually become my default ways to procrastinate. I get more and more stress in my life so I engage in more procrastination. Eventually those default behaviours become compulsive - my main way to take my mind off what is causing me anxiety. Eventually those compulsive behaviours become addiction. My main ways to “feel better”. My main ways of feeling better are sex, overeating and watching TV until I fall asleep. They dull those feelings of anxiety by engaging my other senses.

I say I do these things to feel better but I guess what I am doing is chasing dopamine, right? Because dopamine feeds my soothing system and detracts from my threat system doesn’t it?

Would a synonym for “compulsive” with less negative connotations be “routine”? So not compulsive behaviours but routine behaviours? In that context, could exercise or meditation or journaling become the routine behaviours (i.e. addictions) I turn to when feeling stressed?

Is that what it’s all about? Will procrastination always feature in the stress response? Perhaps more perhaps less but it will always be there.

Can we train ourselves to need less procrastination when we feel stressed? What do we replace it with? Is it by focusing on our values?

At the same time, do we try to replace those addictions which harm our mental or physical health with ones that heal our mental or physical health?

Am I overthinking all of this?

What do others here think?