Does This Make You Anxious?

I recently finished reading Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine M. Pittman.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT* Rating: 3/5 stars

"Do you ever wonder what is happening inside your brain when you feel anxious, panicked, and worried? In Rewire Your Anxious Brain , psychologist Catherine Pittman and author Elizabeth Karle offer a unique, evidence-based solution to overcoming anxiety based in cutting-edge neuroscience and research. In the book, you will learn how the amygdala and cortex (both important parts of the brain) are essential players in the neuropsychology of anxiety. The amygdala acts as a primal response, and oftentimes, when this part of the brain processes fear, you may not even understand why you are afraid. By comparison, the cortex is the center of “worry.” That is, obsessing, ruminating, and dwelling on things that may or may not happen. In the book, Pittman and Karle make it simple by offering specific examples of how to manage fear by tapping into both of these pathways in the brain. As you read, you’ll gain a greater understanding how anxiety is created in the brain, and as a result, you will feel empowered and motivated to overcome it. The brain is a powerful tool, and the more you work to change the way you respond to fear, the more resilient you will become. Using the practical self-assessments and proven-effective techniques in this book, you will learn to literally “rewire” the brain processes that lie at the root of your fears."

Anxiety is a phenomenon that involves the whole person—the brain, the nervous system, the mind (thought life), and the heart (spiritual aspects). I found Rewire Your Anxious Brain helpful in one of those aspects. The brain. The authors provide an excellent summary of findings of neuroscience as it relates to anxiety. And the tips on how to manage the physiological aspects are helpful.

At the core of the physical aspects of anxiety is the amygdala, a part of the brain that stores emotional memories that aren't processed in the cortex, so you have no conscious awareness of them. Most people would refer to this as subconscious anxiety, though the authors don’t use that term.

They cite the example of a woman suffering from memory loss in a hospital. One doctor shook her hand but had a pin in his palm that pricked her. She withdrew her hand. The next day, because of her condition, she had no memory of that doctor at all. But when he extended his hand to shake, she withdrew. They asked her why and she had no idea. The memory of that pain stored in her amygdala but was forgotten by the cortex.

The authors tell another story of a girl who became panicky in some social situations but not others. Someone quizzed her about it and helped her realize it only happened when people were seated in a circle. Finally, she remembered a time when she was a child and was humiliated at school in a circle of students. Her amygdala recorded the negative feeling in association with the circular setting. So that arrangement became a trigger to the amygdala without the cortex knowing it.

Panic Attacks

This is why panic attacks often make no sense. The amygdala does not have the capacity for logic or reason, only association. Neurons that fire together wire together. A soldier had recovered from his PTSD, but then inexplicably began to relapse when he showered. He finally realized his wife had switched the soap brand to one that he had used when he was in combat. It wasn’t that he smelled the soap and thought, “Wow, this reminds me of that horrible time in my life.” It was not a conscious memory—just an association in the amygdala. He changed soap brands and the panic attacks went away.

The Body’s Alert System

The amygdala’s job is to set off the red alert signals in the nervous system to enable the body to deal with danger—increased heart rate, rapid breathing, tense muscles, adrenaline release, etc. It doesn’t go through the cortex because reactions to danger sometimes need to be instantaneous. If an object is flying at you in your peripheral vision and is about to impact your head, your amygdala can set your body in motion to duck or brace before your cortex even knows what’s going on.

This is why you can’t talk yourself out of a panic attack. You can tell yourself (or someone else can tell you) all day long that you’re not in danger, and that the feelings of panic are unwarranted, but the amygdala doesn’t respond to logic or reason. Talking yourself out of a panic attack with reason is like using logic to tell your heart to stop beating. It won’t listen. The responses of the amygdala are essentially mechanical actions, not rational ones.

In fact, logical reasoning during a panic attack can make matters worse. If you have thoughts like, “Am I having a heart attack?” or “Am I going crazy? What’s wrong with me?” can cause negative emotions that only strengthen the amygdala’s panic response.

Retraining the Amygdala

The best way to think during a panic attack is to simply remember, “This won’t hurt me, and it will soon pass. My amygdala is simply responding to some trigger, and my nervous system is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do when the amygdala signals an alert.”

And while the amygdala doesn’t respond to logic, it does respond to physical actions. When it sets off the red alert, if you respond with calming actions, such as slow, deep breathing, muscle relaxation, pleasant social interactions, and physical activity to burn off the adrenaline, it can retrain the amygdala to stop setting off alarms when that trigger arises. But if you do what comes naturally (fight/flight/freeze), that only reinforces the amygdala’s association of that trigger with danger. So it’s important not to withdraw or become aggressive.

The amygdala can’t be retrained unless it is in an activated state. So it’s important to respond in calming ways, especially with slow, deep breathing, during the panic attack.

It should be noted that it’s not necessary to discover what caused the negative memory. If people sitting in a circle triggers panic attacks, it doesn’t matter how the circle configuration got associated with danger in the amygdala. The retraining will work just as well regardless of whether you are aware of how the association first began.

Cortex-Induced Anxiety (Your Thought Life)

Another section of the book addressed the thought life, offering tips on how to avoid excess worry or fretting. This section may be helpful to some who haven’t given the matter any thought. Personally, I found most of it merely observations of common sense. Nothing especially profound.

Catastrophism

I did like the section on catastrophism (overreaction to a negative event, such as yelling and pounding on the steering wheel when someone cuts you off, as if that were a catastrophe). Very often I dislike the terminology coined in the psychology world because they tend to be misleading. But the term catastrophism is, in my judgment, both helpful and humorous. The idea that I’ve suffered a catastrophic setback in my life because someone pulled in front of me on the highway is a funny way to highlight how irrational the response is. And simply asking myself, “Why am I reacting to this as if it were a catastrophe?” may be enough to change my reaction.

Cognitive Fusion (Mistaking Your Thoughts for Reality)

I also liked the section on cognitive fusion, which is when we confuse our thoughts about a possible event with actual events. A boyfriend doesn’t respond to a text, and the girl imagines he has lost interest in her. Her emotions react as if that were actually true, even though it may be his phone battery is dead. When worrisome thoughts take over, it’s good to remind yourself, “These are only thoughts, not actual events. Don’t respond to them as if they were events.” This calls to mind the saying, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

Reminding yourself that thoughts are only thoughts, not reality, is helpful. We can analyze our own thoughts. “Oh, here comes that pesky thought again. I’d better be careful with it. Too much time on it and it could activate my amygdala.” They compare our thoughts to channels on TV. Getting stuck on the anxiety channel is harmful, and the solution is to turn to another channel. The circuitry in the brain that is used the most becomes the strongest. Circuitry you don’t use becomes weaker and less likely to be activated.

Nothing on Good Anxiety

One glaring omission in the book is the fact that very little is said about the purpose of anxiety and how to use it properly. With a few exceptions, the authors mostly assume reduction in anxiety is a good goal. But Scripture condemns the lack of anxiety over important matters (Philippians 2:19-20; Romans 12:11; 1 Corinthians 7:32; 12:25-26; Ezekiel 16:49). Anxiety is a gift from God and is crucial for a healthy, vibrant life. It’s designed to motivate us and give us the energy to handle problems. If you have not yet used your anxiety for its intended purpose, and you take steps to deaden the intensity of that anxiety, you may be harming yourself.

The authors speak of “activating the amygdala” like it’s always a pitfall to avoid. The authors acknowledge it is valuable for situations of high danger or when instant reactions are necessary, but anxiety is also important for situations that are not emergencies, but that warrant an emotional response. If I hear that my child is being bullied at school and that doesn’t affect me emotionally, something’s wrong with me. I wish I had far more anxiety than I do over lost people going to hell. There are plenty of situations where it would be wise to use our cortex to think rationally in ways designed to activate the amygdala so that we have the anxiety we need to function properly in life.

Check out Rewire Your Anxious Brain, and learn more about anxiety and how it can impact you.

Happy Reading :)