Anxiety

ANXIETY – SOME BIOLOGICAL FACTS

Anxiety has been around for as long as mankind has walked the earth.

 It’s the basic biological mechanism that has kept us alive for aeons. The part of the brain responsible for anxiety is called the limbic system and it’s the most primitive part of the brain. To understand anxiety, we need to understand the limbic system and how, and why, it works the way that it does. The limbic system consists of a set of structures in the brain. Each structure is responsible for something different, but they work together to regulate autonomic and endocrine function. The autonomic part means unconscious, which is why we can react to something without having to think about it.

This system has worked incredibly well. Unfortunately, the limbic system hasn’t evolved along with the rest of our brains. Hence, we can develop phobias of things that aren’t dangerous. Originally though, the limbic system would have saved our lives countless times and I thought it would be helpful for you to have a real-life example of how brilliant the limbic system can be.

Let’s imagine that thousands of years ago we’re foraging in the woods and we come across a cave. We’re feeling anxious. Humans are programmed to be anxious, or at least “on edge”, with new or unfamiliar situations just in case something does happen. Our stress levels have risen and cortisol and adrenaline are being released into our bodies. Suddenly, a bear comes out of the cave and roars at us, giving us one hell of a fright! The limbic system kicks in, cortisol and adrenaline floods into our bloodstream and we flee. Immediately a memory file is being created in our unconscious mind – BEAR = THREAT TO LIFE. We saw the bear coming out of the cave though, so another memory file is formed – CAVE = POTENTIAL THREAT TO LIFE.

The amazing thing about the limbic system is that it can remember these experiences for a very, very long time. It could be decades before we encounter another cave, but as soon as we do we feel anxious. That’s the limbic system warning us to avoid the cave in case a bear comes out of it and attacks us. Our anxiety reactions go further than this. Have you ever come across someone that has learned to be scared of something they’ve never encountered? Let’s say that we go back to our tribe and we tell them all about the bear and the cave. The adrenaline is still pumping, we re-enact the bear and how we got away. We’re still scared ourselves and our tribe can see how freaked out we are. So now their limbic systems are kicking in as they empathise with our story and their unconscious minds are forming their own files. Our tribe don’t need to encounter the bear, they just need to feel the way that we did and imagine what happened. We have potentially saved their lives but it is for this reason that people don’t need to encounter something in order to be afraid of it.

Thalamus and Amygdala 

The amygdala is the part of the brain that is essential in processing emotion. Another part of the brain – the Thalamus – acts as a relay station. It relays external sense information and the amygdala looks for anything that might match what it already knows. For example, anything that might be of danger to us. The amygdala also sends projections to the hypothalamus to trigger a stress response and send us into fight or flight mode. The amygdala helps us to sense danger. It essentially has a list of fears, its job is to jump into action even before we consciously know whether we need to fight or flee. Many of people experiencing anxiety report that they feel like they’re always looking for danger. They’re correct, the amygdala is activated and trying to protect them. The key is to calm down the amygdala.

The right and left portions of the amygdala have independent memory systems but work together to store, encode, and interpret emotion. The right amygdala plays a role in the expression of fear and in the processing of fear-inducing stimuli. It’s also responsible for something called fear conditioning, which is where a neutral stimulus acquires aversive properties, leading to a conditioned fear response.

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus plays a crucial role in many important functions, including: – Releasing hormones –

Regulating body temperature –

Maintaining daily physiological cycles –

Controlling appetite –

Managing of sexual behaviour –

Regulating emotional responses

The hypothalamus in the brain is in charge of the stress response. When a stress response is triggered (by the information sent from the amygdala), it sends signals to two other structures: the pituitary gland and the adrenal medulla. These short-term responses are produced by The Fight or Flight Response via the Sympathomedullary Pathway (SAM). Long-term stress is regulated by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) system. For example, if we look at long-term stress, the hypothalamus causes the adrenal cortex to release stress hormones called cortisol. This has a number of functions including releasing stored glucose from the liver (for energy) and controlling swelling after an injury. The immune system is suppressed while this happens. This could be an explanation as to why people who are stressed or anxious long-term tend to suffer more from illnesses such as colds. Alternatively, if we take short-term stress, the hypothalamus also activates the adrenal medulla which secretes the hormone adrenaline. This hormone gets the body ready for a fight-or-flight response. Adrenaline creates changes in the body such as decreases in digestion and increases in sweating, increased pulse and blood pressure. Once the ‘threat’ is over, the parasympathetic branch takes control and brings the body back into a balanced state. I remember watching an episode of Downton Abbey once and a character was worried about someone on a racetrack – actually she was clearly having a full-blown anxiety attack and when offered food she commented on how she absolutely had no appetite. Later on, once the person returns from the race unscathed, she’s more than happy to eat (once she’s calmed down). I’d be willing to bet that if this had been real life the adrenaline she was feeling likely stopped her from being able to eat.

I wanted to take this opportunity to mention some other biological issues and anomalies that can cause, or at least contribute, to anxiety and that could be linked to the hypothalamus. Bodily changes such as menstruation and menopause can also trigger anxiety. Illness can trigger anxiety. As much as I am absolutely convinced the vast majority of anxiety disorder sufferers are such because of significant trauma, sometimes the answer might be as simple as changing their hormone pill or breaking a fever. We need to bear in mind that we all feel stress and anxiety at different levels and sometimes these levels can overlap. All of the functions explained above are unconscious, in the case of a typical fight or flight response, we can trust our bodies to return to the calm balance that they should be all on their own as soon as we’re ready to.

Hippocampus

The hippocampus plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. In Alzheimer’s disease (and other forms of dementia), the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage (short-term memory loss and disorientation are included among the early symptoms). The hippocampus is anatomically connected to parts of the brain that are involved with emotional behaviour (the limbic system). The hippocampus contains high levels of glucocorticoid (cortisol) receptors, which make it more vulnerable to long-term stress than most other brain areas. Chronic stress resulting in elevated levels of cortisol is seen to be a cause of deterioration in the hippocampus. Psychologists and neuroscientists generally agree that the hippocampus plays an important role in the formation of new memories about experienced events.

In Summary: The Thalamus relays external sense information to other parts of the brain The Amygdala processes emotion and creates emotional memory. It projects information to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is in charge of our stress response and fight or flight response The Hippocampus creates long and short-term memory and is responsible for spatial navigation All of these parts of the brain are connected. They share the same space, and herein lies the rub. Theres another part of the brain that we need to discuss, it’s called the neocortex and it’s responsible for our imagination. When we imagine something, it’s picked up by the Thalamus. The thalamus, acting as a relay, transmits this information to the rest of the limbic system. The limbic system reacts accordingly, and here’s why: The limbic system has no idea that what you’re thinking is imaginary – IT THINKS IT’S REAL!

So, when we overthink, catastrophise, and scenario build we react as if it’s happening! This is why anxiety feels so utterly terrible – it’s designed to save your life. Your limbic system, your anxiety, literally thinks it’s saving your life. It needs you to listen or die! But I have further news. The more that we do this, the more that we think negatively, the more we fire electrochemical impulses and build negative wiring within our minds. We then reinforce this wiring over, and over, and over again. This causes automatic negative thoughts. Have you felt that your anxious thoughts are automatic and overwhelming? This is why: The more you think negatively, the more you send all of your energy to your limbic system. You’re literally feeding the anxiety! Many clients report feeling “foggy” or having a “woolly head” when they’re anxious. This is because the body diverts blood flow to the limbic system because your body thinks you need to fight or flee. We need to starve the anxiety. We need to get another part of the brain working instead. The logical part of the brain. When the logical brain is receiving less blood flow, thinking is diminished and our emotional brain (the limbic system) has more power. So, we need to support our logical thinking brain. We need to give it power. I introduce you to:

The Prefrontal Cortex.

The prefrontal cortex is our friend when it comes to anxiety. It’s logical, it knows how to reason, and we need to send the majority of our energy there to calm our limbic system! The prefrontal cortex is the cerebral cortex covering the front part of the frontal lobe. This brain region is believed to be important in planning complex cognitive behaviour, personality expression, decision-making, and moderating social behaviour. This last point is important because many clients with anxiety that I come across are absolutely petrified that they will “make a fool of themselves”.

The basic activity of the prefrontal cortex is considered to be the orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes). So, if we consider that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for the orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals, and we encourage the client to have the internal goal of calming down, we can use the prefrontal cortex to achieve this goal. The prefrontal cortex is also responsible for differentiating between conflicting thoughts and prediction of outcomes, so if we change those thoughts so they are no longer conflicting and predict an outcome that is not so dangerous and catastrophic, this again will lead to the limbic system calming down. For most anxiety sufferers the idea of thinking positively is extremely difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, for them. I’m going to show you a coping technique that takes this into account so you can help yourself to calm down. This coping technique is one of the best I’ve ever come across and it works, every time.

Grounding technique

This technique works on different levels. It is designed to remind the individual that the environment they are in is safe. It also helps to focus on something else other than the anxiety. The objective is to communicate to the mind that you really are ok, that everything around you is exactly as it should be and the situation is normal. This technique is particularly helpful for those that feel they are “dizzy” – a very common side effect of anxiety. It also helps us to externalise rather than internalise because focusing on the grounded and calm objects in the outside world can be a positive and constructive distraction rather than focusing on the internal anxiety and turmoil because when we focus on something it gets bigger!  

So, Look around you. Focus on the objects you see one at a time. Focus on solid, still objects. Then remind yourself that you are with this object, the object is fine, it’s still, nothing is making the object move or fall over, the object is fine and therefore you are fine. Now pick out specifics about the objects you’re looking at as this should help distract you from the anxiety and builds a better picture in your mind. What colour is the object? Are there many colours? What shades are there? What is the texture of the object? What do you like about the object? Try to think of every angle possible for each animal/mineral/plant/vegetable/synthetic you choose. Describe it in minute detail. If you still feel anxious when using this technique, it’s because your view of the world is engrained and your overactive amygdala is still looking for danger. You must get used to the idea that you can pull your attention away from the anxiety.

I encourage you to do this regularly. Practice it three times per day, every day. This technique needs to become second nature. Once it does, you will be very pleased with the results!

Another useful technique is box breathing. Focusing on the rhythmic breath can help the mind escape cycling negative thoughts. I find this really useful when I’m late & stuck in traffic!