Understanding Your Anxious Brain

Anxiety, we all have it. How do we understand it? What can we do about it??

One of the most common feedback points I receive from clients in terms of a "lightbulb moment" has been around understanding what anxiety is, where it comes from, and how it can be improved to increase the quality of life. It can feel overwhelming and daunting, especially at first, but real change is most definitely accessible! This is a summary of a much longer and more detailed series of posts that I’m in the process of writing, in hopes that it will be illuminating and a worthwhile investment of time for those interested in understanding their minds and feeling like they have more agency and alignment with their thoughts and emotions.

For those short on time, this post should take about 3 minutes to read, and should give you an overview of why we have anxiety

For those who really don’t have the time, here’s the 10-second takeaway: Anxiety is not your fault, it’s a natural and helpful part of our brain, we evolved to have it. Everyone has anxiety, it varies by degree and how much resilience we have to stress, and it has been proven to be responsive to therapeutic treatments such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. If you are struggling with anxiety and want to feel better, there are many well-established ways to do so, and seeing a therapist trained in anxiety is one excellent option to help train and improve your capacity.

That “Aha” moment, when you realize EVERYONE has anxiety!

You may wonder why you struggle with anxiety. What is this? Where does it come from? Why do I feel so anxious? Why is this happening to me? You might be surprised to learn that anxiety is actually a helpful function of our brain that helps to keep us safe from dangers in the world. The issue is when it becomes over-efficient, shifting from adaptive to maladaptive, and leaving us with increased difficulty in attention and focus, racing thoughts and rumination, difficulty with rational decision making and emotional regulation, lowered resilience to challenges in life and motivation, and difficulty with positive social interactions.

Anxiety comes from a part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped part of the brain that plays a crucial role in our emotional responses and survival instincts. It acts as our brain's "alarm system." Throughout human history, when our ancestors lived in more dangerous environments, the amygdala helped us detect and respond to potential threats, such as predators or other dangers in the environment. Often, it would respond unconsciously, without our need to process the information, and that could have saved us from becoming dinner!

The amygdala on display, the little nub above the white bulge of the brainstem. Such a small part of the brain, with such a huge impact!

Think of the amygdala as a watchful guardian, constantly scanning our surroundings for anything that could harm us. When it detects a potential threat, it triggers a series of automatic reactions in our bodies, preparing us to either confront the danger or flee from it.

In the face of danger, the amygdala activates our "fight-or-flight" response. This means that it signals our body to release stress hormones like adrenaline, which increase our heart rate, sharpen our senses, and boost our energy levels. These physical changes prepare us to either confront the threat head-on or escape from it as quickly as possible. This can result in some confrontations that we later look at with shame and disbelief.

If we become overwhelmed, we can also "freeze" or shut down in the face of a threat. This behavior may have come from the understanding that many predators only ate prey they killed, so "playing dead" may have resulted in actually surviving an attack. This can happen to us in some traumatic circumstances, and it is our brain making an automatic decision, not a conscious one. That is to say, you are not "in control" of the decision, and so feeling guilt for not “doing something” is not helpful in the healing process.

Fight, flight, or freeze. Sometimes, when we don’t know what to do, we just shut down.

Additionally, the amygdala is involved in processing and storing emotional memories. It helps us remember situations that were particularly threatening or emotionally significant. These memories can guide our future behavior and help us recognize and avoid similar dangers in the future. Again, if the amygdala is over-efficient, it may see threats everywhere, including where there doesn't need to be a reaction. It can sometimes be overactive, leading to heightened anxiety or fear responses even in situations that are not truly dangerous.

Your anxiety is lying to you! Well, sometimes, at least…

Just because your amygdala may be overfunctioning and creating undue anxiety does not mean you are trapped in this cycle. The good news is there is significant evidence that therapy can help to reduce the unwanted symptoms, and eventually even help bring the threat detection system into healthy regulation.

Therapy creates a safe and supportive space for you to explore your experiences, develop coping strategies, and enhance emotional regulation skills. By working with a trained therapist, you can learn to manage anxiety, redirect attention, challenge negative thought patterns, make rational decisions, regulate emotions effectively, build resilience, and improve social interactions. Through evidence-based approaches like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based interventions, and trauma-focused therapies (to name just a few of the many), symptoms related to an overactive amygdala can be addressed.

You can find freedom from your symptoms!