Do you think SpongeBob has anxiety?

[SpongeMountain]

In some episodes, like the driving ones, SpongeBob gets very tense when he has to drive and destroys a lot of things around him. It also happens in other episodes that are not driving, like in the episodes where he has stage fright (which I remember 3 in season 1, 7 and 11) that I also see that mental restlessness in some people with quite noticeable anxiety.

However, when I see that SpongeBob is very calm he manages to do many things (for example, the Krabby Patty usually does very well on most occasions). Also, in the Mrs. Puff, You're Fired, he manages to drive very well after the instructions given by that instructor that make him calm behind them and he even seems to me to be an expert driving when he is wearing blindfold or Patrick's pants more late.

 

[Yummylesecond]

I don't think Spongebob has anxiety because he only shows symptoms of anxiety when he's really nervous and being nervous is something all humans do so that's normal.

 

[SpongeyMind]

No, But Mrs Puff certainly does

 

[Season 4-11]

No, But Mrs Puff certainly does

Bro Mrs. Puff has full on PTSD not just anxiety

 

[Sara SquarePants]

He might

Maybe...

 

[FryBob PattyPants]

Being nervous due to certain circumstances does not correlate towards anxiety. I think that's a little overdramatic, considering that anxiety can be a very troubling mental condition.

 

[Pugs4Thugs]

While SpongeBob doesn't necessarily fit the criteria for any anxiety disorder (which makes sense given that he wasn't written with that in mind), I'd definitely say he's got some symptoms of it, even if they are situation-specific because they carry over between situations. There's the obvious example of boating school, yes, which I'd say implies that SpongeBob has a specific phobia of driving or something related, like testing. However we've also seen SpongeBob have anxiety symptoms in other places—he's an extreme perfectionist in some episodes like "Sea-Man Sponge Haters Club", he's got bad stage fright in episodes like "Squirrel Jokes", "The Play's The Thing", "ChefBob", etc., he's simply restless in episodes like "Bummer Vacation". So he's shown some symptoms. But for every example of SpongeBob having anxiety in a specific place, we've got another example of the opposite.

Now, pretty much all of this is a result of exaggeration for the sake of comedy, hence why SpongeBob can't really be definitively classified as having anxiety, because when it doesn't serve the comedy, those traits disappear. That's also why they only show up in random situations, not enough to say he's generally got anxiety.