Because of its intensity Anxiety cannot exist all the time, it has to wind down after a while. Leaving a gap of non-anxiety in between anxiety attacks, however long or short.
Timidity exists all the time, 24/7/365. Always. Add up the total amount of time the mind exists in either, multiplied by the intensity; sum up the totals of intensity multiplied by time for both, and one can see that Timidity takes over much more of the mind than Anxiety does. Anxiety is always the exception, not the rule. Much time generally elapses between anxiety attacks. There is never any time between moments of Timidity, it is always there, it never leaves.
The reason people attempt escape from Anxiety through sedation, is to diminish the intensity of anxiety by reducing the total available energy for it in the mind. This seems to work at least somewhat. Anxiety attacks are less intense. But at an enormously high price. Reducing the energy to the mind reduces ALL its activities. Including the ability to think clearly. Timidity cannot think clearly at all. All timidity can do is hide out of sight from the low level awareness that exists in the mind along with it, and then spring forward with alarm whenever a new activity is suggested or thought of. Don't do that, it will make things worse. Stay where you are, do as little as possible.
So. The attempted escape from Anxiety/Fear has completely failed. The sedation retreat into Timidity/Fear has made things worse. Now Fear has consumed the mind All the time, rather than only occasionally. The perceived lesser intensity has become overwhelmed by the never-ending presence. Sedation, at best only intermittent, is now irrelevant. Timidity is forever constant. Fear has triumphed over all and has at last achieved total consumption of the mind.
None of this happens in a mind that looks within carefully and finally understands Fear. Understands it totally. Rather than running away and hiding. Or wishing and hoping it will stay away for a long long time.
Looking within and examining what it is all about, one can see logically that Fear is negative anticipation of the future. Which is a figment of our imagination, regardless of whether that particular anticipation ever actually occurs. At the moment we experience Fear it is never about the instant present, it is always about the impending future, be it only a split second ahead. That which is impending we cannot actually deal with, since it is not here yet. That which is actually here we can actually deal with. Caution is not Fear. Caution is dealing carefully with that which is now in front of us. Fear is anticipating that things will get worse soon. So logically Fear is senseless. No good can ever come out of it. Direct Perception of its quality of senselessness instantly ends it, automatically. Often Fear is not perceived even logically as being a bad thing, because of it having been a mental habit for so so long. And it being tolerated by so many people.
It is wisdom to never, ever, Fear the future. Since absolutely zero good can come from such a thing. Fear paralyzes. Caution prepares.
But it is the emotional, not logical, aspect of Fear that paralyzes. That causes anxiety and intense acute anxiety. As hard as it might be for people to perceive Fear as a bad thing logically; it is much harder to resist it emotionally. To perceive it as a terrible danger even as it begins to arise from a very small beginning, way before it blossoms into a full blown anxiety attack.
The mistake is in believing there is something worthwhile to be gained from spending much time imagining a negative future. The mistake is in continuing to keep this negativity within the mind beyond the point at which cautionary preparations have been made. The mistake is in thinking that there is no such thing as overthinking something. This mistake is common among those who believe that their minds are slower than they should be, and so they feel they have to spend much more time thinking about things. The more time one spends with any thought, the more importance it assumes within the mind. The more time one spends overthinking negative anticipations the more likely the event appears to be. And then it seems certain to occur. And the anxiety is now full blown.
Thought is dangerous.