Rewiring Anxiety- The role of the amygdala in learning to be anxious - The Anxiety Cycle 3/30

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Your brain is wired to adapt to circumstances, it can physically rewire itself based on how you think and the experiences you have. The human brain is one of the most complex and brilliant and amazingly powerful creations in the world. So why the heck does it make so many anxious thoughts, why can it make us miserable sometimes? There are some ways we accidentally teach our brain to be more anxious. Let me show you.
When the amygdala perceives a threat, it sounds the alarm, triggers a fear or anxiety response. It's like your brain saying, "Hey! There might be a bear!" This response activates your body's fight-or-flight system, getting you ready to either face the threat or escape from it. You jumped backwards (flight) and yelled (fight), both are adaptive ways to deal with a real threat.
Then when you saw that it was just your friend, your amygdala re-assessed the situation and realized - “Ok phew! I am safe, we can turn off battle mode”. The parasympathetic response kicks in, you laugh it off, shake it off, and tell the story. Your sense of safety is restored. Your brain and body have a natural, hardwired ability to resolve fear and stress.

Now, let me tell you how this system can get hijacked and we end up feeding a constant state of anxiety. Stimulus (a rustle in the bushes), Perception (This is dangerous!) the amygdala would fire off a quick alert, the body would go into FFF, and Megan did everything she could to flee. These are all avoidance behaviors. And guess what, she survived, nothing physically bad happened to her.

But here’s the really important thing to understand, your brain is plastic, it physically and chemically changes based on how you think and how you act. When she avoided the rustling sound, her brain essentially learned “Phew, I could have died! I have to avoid rustling sounds to keep my human alive, so I’m going to make my human MORE anxious.” Your brain isn’t designed to make you happy, it’s designed to keep you alive.

This is how we accidentally make ourselves more anxious, avoidance trains your brain to increase anxiety. It keeps you stuck in the loop, where instead of addressing a danger -which allows your amygdala to reassess and restore safety.

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Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction.
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