This is one of the most challenging games at the arcade, and a lot of fun, since you get to whack at something with a huge mallet and no one gets hurt, or files a lawsuit. It’s also something that reminds me of the game anxiety likes to play, with high stakes, since it plays for its own survival.

In the arcade game, you try desperately to knock down each mole as it appears, and sometimes more than one appears at a time, but you’re ready with a mallet in hand. Then just as you knock one down another appears, and so on until the game runs out. Anxiety is the mole or all of the moles in this instance. The mallet being your tools you have at the ready for when anxiety finds the next place in your life to attach itself, but then just as soon as you’ve knocked that one down, it finds somewhere totally unexpected to resurface, and sometimes with a vengeance.

So, what can be done if these moles are so relentless and don’t give up? Well, in the game you have plenty of options. You can choose not to play and accept that anxiety will just inevitably surface whether or not you try to beat it down by finding a way of accepting anxiety as a part of your life, including the positive that can come with it. You can also cheat and unplug the game, but then you miss out on all the fun life has to offer if you choose to isolate yourself and not venture out into the world. Then again, sometimes you end up choosing between the two depending on how important something is to you. Also, you can find a way to use the mallet even when the moles don’t pop up, or practice something that works for you on a regular basis so that when those inevitable moles show their face they can’t come up as far or have as much power.

If you are searching for new tools to combat whatever anxiety might surface, give STA a call at (201) 488-6678 so that the vermin in your own life doesn’t end up controlling you.