Anxiety

It’s hard to remain calm if your entire body is telling you that you are experiencing a true emergency. Adrenaline starts pumping and nonstop “WHAT IF’S” are racing through your mind. But just like the fear of a young child, who is sure the boogie man is under the bed, these fears are typically quite irrational or extremely exaggerated. So why does this happen to so many adults with often above average intelligence?


Deep within the brain is our “alarm center” it’s called the amygdala. This alarm developed hundreds of thousands of years ago, to protect us from threats like lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!). The problem is - that in the absence of such life threats, the brain is now free to “trigger”to non-life threatening situations. Once we are triggered, the incident will be “recorded” on the brain’s “hard drive”, and as a result, the brain will respond in an exaggerated way to anything reminiscent of that event. So if I️ was attacked by a bear, in prehistoric times, my brain would record the event and sound an alarm if I️ ever encountered anything like a bear again. This would help increase the likelihood of my survival.


Unfortunately today, that very same alarm can be triggered by situations that hold little to no real threat. For example, if I️ accidentally got too frightened by news of a plane crash (perhaps the airport was very close to home) my brain immediately makes a hugely inaccurate note on it’s “hard drive” indicating that flying in planes is a life and death risk. This allows even the mention of air travel to cause an immediate and automatic dump of adrenaline into my system, making me so uncomfortable that I️ may stop my future travel, and limit my life. So, what was designed to keep me safe as a caveman now can terrify me and make my life more limited, more challenging, and definitely more frighteningMany of us that are already prone to anxiety have an increased sensitivity to the environment. So sometimes the above mentioned fear response is activated randomly and feels “out of the blue”.


So, how do people benefit from effective Anxiety Treatment? Basically it’s about calming down overly reactive brain responses (think of a faulty car alarm, easily going off even though there was no break in) and then, if necessary, retraining the brain to more accurately assess threat in whatever area there has been an exaggerated or irrational response. So, if I am terrified to fly on that airplane, I would get assistance settling my nervous system down enough so that my brain could be retrained to no longer react with the irrational fear of flying and then I️ could travel freely once again. My world and my life become more free and unlimited, while my capacity to enjoy it becomes greater too.

It’s hard to remain calm if your entire body is telling you that you are experiencing a true emergency. Adrenaline starts pumping and nonstop “WHAT IF’S” are racing through your mind. But just like the fear of a young child, who is sure the boogie man is under the bed, these fears are typically quite irrational or extremely exaggerated. So why does this happen to so many adults with often above average intelligence?


Deep within the brain is our “alarm center” it’s called the amygdala. This alarm developed hundreds of thousands of years ago, to protect us from threats like lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!). The problem is - that in the absence of such life threats, the brain is now free to “trigger”to non-life threatening situations. Once we are triggered, the incident will be “recorded” on the brain’s “hard drive”, and as a result, the brain will respond in an exaggerated way to anything reminiscent of that event. So if I️ was attacked by a bear, in prehistoric times, my brain would record the event and sound an alarm if I️ ever encountered anything like a bear again. This would help increase the likelihood of my survival.


Unfortunately today, that very same alarm can be triggered by situations that hold little to no real threat. For example, if I️ accidentally got too frightened by news of a plane crash (perhaps the airport was very close to home) my brain immediately makes a hugely inaccurate note on it’s “hard drive” indicating that flying in planes is a life and death risk. This allows even the mention of air travel to cause an immediate and automatic dump of adrenaline into my system, making me so uncomfortable that I️ may stop my future travel, and limit my life. So, what was designed to keep me safe as a caveman now can terrify me and make my life more limited, more challenging, and definitely more frighteningMany of us that are already prone to anxiety have an increased sensitivity to the environment. So sometimes the above mentioned fear response is activated randomly and feels “out of the blue”.


So, how do people benefit from effective Anxiety Treatment? Basically it’s about calming down overly reactive brain responses (think of a faulty car alarm, easily going off even though there was no break in) and then, if necessary, retraining the brain to more accurately assess threat in whatever area there has been an exaggerated or irrational response. So, if I am terrified to fly on that airplane, I would get assistance settling my nervous system down enough so that my brain could be retrained to no longer react with the irrational fear of flying and then I️ could travel freely once again. My world and my life become more free and unlimited, while my capacity to enjoy it becomes greater too.