I met someone who has been struggling with anxiety for some time now. He feels trapped by this thought, as it persistent lingers in his mind, despite his best efforts to move past it. Actually anxiety needs to be confronted head-on, requiring individuals to face their fears. However, in his case, the actual situation he’s anxious about won’t occur until certain future events unfold and after a specific set of events take place. He is continuously anxious of it but logically and understandably based on his past experience in similar situations.

He’s explored numerous remedies to alleviate his anxiety, but this raises the question: does he truly have free will? First, he can’t will himself to stop having anxious thoughts. He simply cannot not think about it.

Second, his fear drives him to search for various solutions. Remember, the mind is wired for survival, constantly on alert for danger. So he has tried all remedies based on his best understanding of what could work. Again, does he have freewill? He is compelled to seek a remedy and every action in this direction is based on specific criteria he’s developed. This criteria hinges on his preconceived notions and the external triggers he encounters. Where did these notions come from? Genetics, environment, peer influence, conditioning, and acquired knowledge all play a role.

If you go deep down into the specifics of your behaviour in the world, you will finally be pulled deeper into the way your brain has developed its notions. And as you go further, you will end up with the law of physics where each external trigger has influenced the smallest molecule and arranged them in a way that creates preferences and aversions for all the entities that exist. Your likes and dislikes are merely reflections of these internal adjustments, which you have little control over.

And hence, where was freewill? Are you really exercising your freewill when you chose between an apple and a banana?