Anxious? Get a sneak peek into why, and game changing tips to take back control
If you want to beat your anxiety, it helps to understand it. Once you know why anxiety occurs, it’s much easier to ‘talk to your brain’ and calm it down.
Here are 10 facts about your brain and anxiety that will help you navigate your way out of an anxiety spiral.
Anxiety is a natural reaction to a threat. In prehistoric days, if we sensed a buffalo in the bushes our senses were alerted, causing a feeling of anxiety.
Our brains are efficient. They like to get from A to B as fast as possible, mainly because speed is necessary to survival. Therefore the wind rustling the bushes causes the same initial reaction as the buffalo in the bushes did.
Our brains have not evolved much! They still perceive any threat in the same way. If you feel anxiety, it is because your brain has sensed a threat, whether that is a predator or a looming exam. Biologically, this external stimulus activates certain regions of the brain, crucially the amygdala, and the body is put into fight or flight mode. We call this sympathetic activation and response.
In this state, levels of the hormone adrenaline rise and the sympathetic nervous system – which controls automatic activities (like breathing) rather than conscious action – takes over. The heart rate rises, breathing speeds up, and blood is diverted to the limbs. Blood pressure and body temperature increase, and we may start to sweat.
Normally, after this initial response our prefrontal cortex evaluates the threat. If the stimulus is non-threatening, the activity within the amygdala is suppressed. If it is threatening, the amygdala fear response is maintained.
Several problems can occur in this process. A) It is thought that naturally anxious people’s pre-frontal cortex may evaluate the threat poorly. B) The flood of adrenaline can be perceived as a threat in itself, perpetuating the fear response (in other words, we become anxious about our anxiety), and C) Being in a fight/flight state decreases our capacity to rationalize the threat consciously.
Knowing these facts we can deploy some helpful techniques. First, if you start to panic, talk to yourself. Tell yourself that your brain is simply reacting to a perceived threat. Reassure yourself that there is no threat. Right now, at this moment, everything is okay.
Use your senses to bring yourself into the present where you can see there is no threat. Touch the table, smell the coffee, listen to the sounds around you. Using your senses helps to ground yourself and focus in the here and now.
Regulate your breathing. During periods of anxiety, the body triggers a set of symptoms called the stress response. Breathing becomes shallow and rapid, heart rate increases, and muscles become tense. In opposition to the stress response is the relaxation response. Breathing becomes deeper and slower, and the symptoms of anxiety fade away. Deep breathing triggers this response. Breathing in through your nose for four seconds, holding for two seconds, then breathing out through your mouth for six seconds. Taking a drink of water can help force you to regulate your breathing, too.
Know that, like anything, practice makes perfect. The more you internalize these facts, and practice these techniques, the sooner you will be able to come out of an anxiety attack.
Anxiety is very common, you are not alone. If you need help with this technique or would like to talk to someone about anxiety, book a therapy session with one of our counselors here.
