The word “anxiety” gets a bad rap. Anxiety is a normal, inevitable, and often helpful emotion. It can alert you to threats, risks, and dangers. Anxiety, simply put, can save your life. But the emotion has become inextricably linked with the disorder. Anxiety disorders come in several forms, and indeed, they are not a positive experience.

So, how does a potentially life-saving emotion transform into the world’s more common mental health issue? At the root is neuroscience. The more you understand the mechanisms behind this process, the better equipped you are to manage it. Let’s take a closer look. 

Anxiety and Your Brain

When confronted with a frightening situation, your body kicks into a hard-wired response. Commonly called “fight or flight,” this state requires your brain to instantly command your body to undergo many drastic changes. Anything that’s not needed for immediate survival takes a backseat. The release of stress hormones is what makes all this possible.

Some possible changes include:

• Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing increase to supply your muscles with oxygen and nutrients.

• With blood flow redirected, you may notice your skin being paler, your feet and hands getting clammy, and your entire body being colder.

• Your muscles feel tense and ready for action.

• Your vision improves thanks to the dilation of your pupils to let in more light.

• You may not feel pain from injuries sustained during the crisis until everything has calmed down.

• All of your senses are heightened.

On some occasions, you may experience incontinence. In addition, an extremely stressful experience can alter how memories are stored. Your recall of the event can be vivid or blacked out.

Of course, such reactions are not supposed to be ongoing. If they continue for the long term, the result could be an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety’s Impact on the Brain

Anxiety is how we respond to stress. If anxiety becomes chronic, your brain cannot tell the difference between real and perceived dangers. This can get you stuck in the aforementioned fight or flight state, and it takes a toll on your brain, e.g.: 

Stress Hormones

When your brain signals that a risk exists, it floods your bloodstream with stress hormones to do everything listed above. Ideally, you return to a calm state once the threat is gone. An anxiety disorder can lock you into a place where the stress hormones never stop. Your amygdala, the part of the brain that deals with emotions, gets larger. This makes it overactive and results in a cycle of false alarms.

Less Rational Thinking 

A hypersensitive amygdala also affects your prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC is designed to keep you making analytical and informed decisions. It can discern how accurate the signal from the amygdala is. However, in the anxious brain, the amygdala and PFC have a weakened connection. You no longer have the benefit of the PFC’s wisdom. The ensuing irrational thoughts end up kick-starting another anxiety cycle. 

Memories

Since your fight or flight response negatively impacts memory storage, your hippocampus may shrink. This part of your brain is vital for choosing which memories to prioritize. But, a hyperactive amygdala can fool your hippocampus. It perceives that only anxious memories are worth storing. As a result, you more easily recall stressful and fearful memories at the expense of positive thoughts of safety and success.

Next Step

Now that you understand the mechanisms behind your anxious mind, you can more clearly identify the need for change. A commitment to therapy is a proven path toward addressing and managing anxiety and anxiety disorders. You can heal. You can recover. It all begins with a free and confidential consultation.