In order the understand anxiety, it’s important to understand the brain with anxiety. Here is a short scientific lesson on the inner workings of anxiety.
The prefrontal cortex assists with decision making, judgment, problem-solving, focusing attention, and impulse control amongst other functions like personality development. Consider it the control center and rational part of the brain. It usually wraps up development in the early 20’s, hence the reason behind age limits for driving, drinking, and the like. A healthy prefrontal cortex typically slows down and manages the amygdala, but in an anxious brain, it is a challenge.
The amygdala is the emotional part of the brain which is constantly working to detect danger in the environment. Its purpose is to protect you and prepare your body to protect itself.
During these times of increased anxiety, stress, or danger, the amygdala assists in secreting stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) in order for the body to respond to danger. As a matter of survival, your blood and oxygen flow to your extremities to get ready to run or fight which then takes this away from the prefrontal cortex. This is called the Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response (FFF response) and it occurs within milliseconds without your awareness.
Think of a caveman. His amygdala helped to protect him from being eaten by a bear or tiger by activating the FFF response. He did not have time to think about how he would survive, his body responded automatically to the threat without his awareness.
The reaction to stress or danger overrides the prefrontal cortex hindering your ability to think rationally (this is why it is best to calm down prior to making decisions or having important conversations). This override is meant to protect you but can happen at the wrong time or more frequently in an anxious brain. In Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence, he refers to this override as the “amygdala hijack”. This hijack can lead to impulsive and irrational decisions.
The FFF Response can be activated even if you are not in danger and without your permission. A thought about a time when you were in danger can activate the response. So even though you aren’t in danger in real-time, the amygdala can’t differentiate between thought and reality.
Chronic stress leads the amygdala to become hypersensitive which can cause false alarms. Someone with a hypersensitive amygdala may overreact to someone’s facial expression, tone of voice, or body language. Thoughts and memories that are emotionally charged can also set off the amygdala as the prefrontal cortex can no longer inhibit the amygdala. The amygdala cannot determine if triggers are real or perceived. For example, thoughts about a traumatic event in the past can trigger the amygdala to act as if the threat is happening in real time.
When the amygdala responds to a threat, it creates emotional memories to protect you in the future. The more emotionally charged the event is, the more likely the amygdala is to retain this information. This tends to be why you are more apt to remember scary or unsettling events.
Situations involving personal relationships, work responsibilities, verbal arguments with others, and bad news about your health or the health of loved ones are just a few scenarios that can also trigger the FFF response.
Despite the fact that all of these situations may be emotionally hurtful or painful, your body’s nervous system may interpret them as physically threatening. As such, your body activates the natural FFF response to get you ready to fight, run away or freeze. In order to tell your biological system that the situations you are facing do not require a fight or flight response, we must trigger the prefrontal cortex and develop new habits (more on this later).
