Conquering Anxiety

Anxiety is an evolutionarily grounded state that was transmitted to modern people from their ancestors. It helped ancient people to quickly respond to potential danger (an aggressive tribesman or a wild bear), but for us, anxiety is an eternal false challenge.

Anxiety is now becoming an almost natural response to, for example, a negatively colored Twitter feed or a sidelong glance from a passer-by. People worry about future failures and suffer from intrusive thoughts and other people’s irritability. Because of this, it can be difficult to concentrate on really important or pleasant things, it is difficult to relax and unwind. Overall satisfaction with life declines, performance declines, perception of reality is distorted. This is exhausting: anxiety is followed by an unreasonable, unmotivated, unbiased expectation of something unfavorable, which is suddenly replaced by panic.

The biology of anxiety, or why are we so anxious

The human brain has a tendency to “stick” to emotionally charged events, be it a minor mishap at work or a humiliating incident in elementary school. Neurons can “discuss” the same vivid episode (including an imaginary one) for several hours, creating a fixation. This is how we dream, plan and… worry.

Anxiety genes were passed from generation to generation in order to survive along with the most viable representatives of Homo Sapience. And now they have reached the XXI century. At the same time, a modern person may experience a feeling of anxiety in relation to events that did not happen to him/her or were even invented.

The catalysts (triggers) of restless thoughts can be important life changes: a change of place of work, once received psychological trauma, an exam, a painful break, or a sudden meeting with a tiger. In short, an unpleasant, awkward or dangerous situation that leads to uncertainty. Also, triggers can be images, smells, sounds, people, or even the most common daily activities associated with once experienced discomfort and stress.

Two biological systems are involved in the formation and sensation of anxiety: the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. The sympathetic department reacts to the effect of the stressor instantly and unconsciously: at its command, the pressure rises the pulse, breathing and pressure increase. A little later, the endocrine system is connected, which triggers the flow of hormones that keep the body alert from a couple of minutes to several hours. The most famous are glucocorticoids (especially cortisol), norepinephrine and adrenaline. In low concentration, they mobilize the body and even contribute to better concentration, but in large concentration, they cause confusion and panic.

In the mechanism of increasing the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the limbic system of the brain plays a huge role, namely, its small part, the amygdala, which is sometimes called the amygdala. The same zone is responsible for emotions and anxiety (often in vain). In situations of danger, a tiny amygdala takes control of the body and generally pulls the blanket over itself in every possible way. At its command, breathing quickens, pressure rises, and the adrenal glands release stress hormones into the blood. The primary response to stress is triggered – “fight or flight”.

The amygdala is responsible for all emotional reactions – both desirable and undesirable – and participates in the formation of the instinct for self-preservation. Although the amygdala can be very annoying to a person – or even turn his/her existence into hell. You can learn to live with it.

5 ways to get rid of anxious thoughts

Even if you suffer from unwarranted anxious thoughts and can’t completely get rid of them, you can change your perceptions, says Dr. Elizabeth Hodge, a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders. Instead of imagining how terrible the consequences unfolding in your head can be, it is worth stopping and thinking something like this: “Okay, this thought again. I know, I know, you’ve been here before. But you are just a thought, not a part of me.”

Anxious thoughts tend to disappear quickly if they are not fed. To do this, you need to redirect your attention and focus on something familiar. It’s also worth starting to develop your emotional regulation skills.

There are the top 5 ways to make this a reality.

1. Meditation

Meditation provides an opportunity to detach, become aware of a restless thought, and choose how to react to it. It teaches to observe thoughts from the outside, without trying to interpret, play or ignore anxious feelings.

Meditation is suitable for safely determining the cause of such a condition and getting rid of the consequences. After all, when we try not to think about anything, obsessive thoughts appear first.

Research has shown that mindfulness meditation can be beneficial for anxiety disorders, depression, chronic pain, and for promoting a sense of overall well-being and improving cognitive performance. The results of brain imaging show that the activity of the amygdala decreases during practice. They also show that this kind of awareness training mitigates some physiological responses, including the release of stress hormones during public speaking or conversations with superiors.

To start meditating, it is enough to take a comfortable position, relax and try not to think about anything. Concentrate on your breathing or the soothing tune in your headphones – nature sounds or classical music are best. You can find them in special applications – Headspace, Calm, PureMind, Tide and many others.

If concentration slips away and thoughts scatter, fix this moment and return to breathing again. The episodes of repeated concentration are key in meditation, they show how to control your attention.

With regular practice (1–2 sessions, 5–15 minutes each day), you come to understand how you need to regulate your mental state. Concentration increases, susceptibility to anxious thoughts and stress decreases, and reaction rates improve. A person learns to catch restless thoughts “on the shore”.

2. Breath control techniques

Breathing correctly lowers stress levels, balances oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, lowers heart rate and relaxes muscles.

To breathe properly, take a quick, short breath and hold your breath, then begin to gradually exhale. Exhalation should be slower than inhalation – 10 seconds. According to researchers at Stanford University, this type of breathing relieves stress from the sympathetic nervous system, while deep inhalation and sharp exhalation, on the contrary, increase its activity.

To focus on breathing easier, place your palm on your stomach and concentrate on the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation.

The main advantage of breathing exercises is that they can be done anywhere, and five minutes is enough to feel how the anxiety subsides.

3. Reading

Reading develops empathy and understanding of oneself. But the benefits of anxiety are more than just that. Studies have shown that reading for at least six minutes daily reduces stress by about 68%. It fights the physical manifestations of anxiety by lowering heart rate, normalizing blood pressure and relaxing muscles.

Reading is a slow activity that is not possible on the go. A pause is exactly what people with increased anxiety often lack.

Reading requires engagement, mindfulness, trains long-term and short-term memory, and contributes to concentration as much as meditation and breathing practices.

It doesn’t matter what you read – a physics textbook, a novel by Haruka Murakami or a psychological thriller, the main thing is personal interest.

4. Music

The brain perceives a melody as a series of rhythmically repeating sounds. It is interested in guessing at what moment the chorus starts, to understand the harmonic sequence and how much one composition differs from another. But what does this have to do with anxiety?

Music is a way of emotional regulation of a person’s mental state. At the same time, it is one of the not widely replicated methods of dealing with anxiety. It triggers body responses and regulates both the psychological and biological aspects of stress.

According to one theory, the therapeutic effect of music is explained by the fact that it has a structure – a rhythm that can tune a person’s pulse, breathing and movements in a single way. The brain can predict information. Music plays the role of a kind of trainer for the predictive mechanisms of the brain. These mechanisms continuously update information about reality in order to adapt to the present and build hypotheses about the future.

According to studies, music has a calming effect on people with increased anxiety: it lowers cortisol levels, increases dopamine synthesis and the brain stem, which is involved in the process of engaging in melody, enhances concentration and puts a person into a kind of weak trance (which is why it can be difficult to distract from your favorite playlist – tightens). While listening, activity is observed in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for rational thinking, planning and purposeful behavior – the brain begins to predict. When the guesses about the melody turn out to be correct, the reward system is triggered – hormones of joy are sent into the blood: dopamine, serotonin, endorphin. Music begins to associate with safe doping, replenishment.

Any genre can reduce anxiety. However, there are several criteria that are especially important: how familiar you are with the music and how much you like it.

Familiar melodies have a therapeutic, calming effect, and favorite tracks reduce the feeling of pain and discomfort – even if it’s heavy metal or hardcore punk. The phenomenon of reducing anxiety through passive listening to music in patients preparing for medical intervention has been well studied – it is enough to turn on some songs in the background.

5. Sport

The need to go in for sports is justified not only by strengthening physical fitness. Exercise is one way to regulate negative emotions. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA confirms that exercise can help reduce anxiety and stress levels.

The fact is that during a protracted intellectual work, the brain ceases to cope with the nerve impulses that come to it from the whole body. The essence of anxiety is to predict probable (even if impossible) dangers, and this requires the most serious mental effort. To extinguish the tension, you need to get up and stretch.

Exercise is beneficial when stress and the impending anxiety deplete your energy and prevent you from concentrating.

It doesn’t matter what kind of physical activity to do. Research shows that even five minutes of aerobics reduces the damage that anxiety has on the body, and a 10-minute walk can work out as well as a 45-minute strength training session.

A one-time exercise will help reduce symptoms here and now. As a preventive measure, it is recommended to engage in sports regularly – four to five times a week, for at least half an hour. Any type of activity will do: strength training, swimming, jogging, walking to cardio, stretching, yoga and gymnastics.