No Stress Ever

Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 6: The Cortex
The thinking part of the brain is a thick covering called the Cortex. It deals with social information: thinking about thinking and emotions, as well as thinking about what others are thinking and feeling.The following parts of the cortex are good to know about in relation to anxiety:

• The anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), the filter and amplifier of information
• The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the place where working memory is held
• The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the CEO where all information is ultimately received, analyzed, and responded to

The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus (ACG)



This area of the cortex organizes information. It gathers data from the limbic system and the hippocampus and puts it into a contex that your Prefrontal cortex can understand and analyze. 


“When the ACG does not have a good balance of neurotransmitters, it can get stuck on negative feelings and be unable to shift them forward, thereby making it less efficient at sending analysis back onto the amygdala. If your ACG gets stuck, qualities you may see and feel are worry and rumination on negative thoughts, oppositional behavior, or inflexibility about trying new options or responses to situations.” -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

 

The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC)


This area commands the process called working memory, or short term storage. It holds pieces of information just long enough to complete tasks of everyday mental functioning. When this part of the cortex is working properly, people have good impulse control, making decisions based on information. 


When the neurotransmitters in the OFC are in balance, you feel optimistic and hopeful. This is important so that you can control your fears with optimistic, problem solving activity.

“Anxiety management techniques aim to control your anxious symptoms primarily through the left brain, using words, analysis, and decision making to control the rest of your brain and your body.Psychotherapy methods that activate other parts of the brain are certainly available, and neccesarily so, because difficult problems such as resolving long-standing trauma, changing the impact of childhood experiences, or altering dark moods such as despair, require different work than just anxiety management techniques. If your anxiety stems from a history of trauma, than you will likely need psychotherapy to to release the impact of that trauma. Your anxiety may be hard to diminish or it may repeatedly return if deeper therapeutic work is not done.” -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 5: The Basal Ganglia

“A ganglia is a concentrated group of neurons. The basal ganglia (BG) are several ganglia that work together to induce motivation, create energy to meet goals, and even coordinate physical movement with the emotion. The basal ganglia are located under the cortex (covering) of the brain, where you do your thinking, and cover the limbic area. One part of the BG, called nucleus accumbens, is specialized to interpret pleasure when it receives the messenger dopamine. When you do something that stimulates dopamine and it flows through to this part, you feel good. This makes you want to repeat whatever you were doing that made you feel good. For this reason, the BG strongly affect motivation and energy.

A person with a good supply of dopamine in the BG will feel motivated and full of energy or high drive, but if the GABA is not working effectively, then the energy can get too high and result in tension. Additionally, even for no real reason but just out-of-the-blue because GABA” (a neurotransmitter responsible for slowing down activity in the brain so that you can stop brain cells from firing off messages) “is not working as it should, over excited activity in the neurons of the BG can trigger panic attacks. In the case of BG energy, some is good, a lot can give you drive but make you tense, and too much can flip over into panic.” -The 10 Best- Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg.

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Minimalism and Tyranny of the Urgent

I’ve been MIA for a while, but back now and straight onto my hobby-horses. Minimizing and prioritizing.

There is a book from way back called “Tyranny of the Urgent”. I haven’t read it myself, but about 20 years ago I read a series of companion studies. The lessons have stuck with me. I am constantly sizing up the urgent and comparing with the important.

This year I’ve enjoyed throwing out, culling and recycling, in the first major purge of my life. I’m amazed at how much I appreciate the things that I’ve kept, now that I can see them.

An interesting post on Becoming Minimalist draws a parallel to our priorities. Being minimalist is more than removing physical belongings. It includes deciding what is important and takes priority every day, and decluttering the urgent distractions.

Read the full post here.

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I am going to be on TV online!!!
For those that are interested, I am going to be on a live tv show that airs on the internet at http://www.healthyplace.com/. You can check out the preview here. The show airs tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th at 7pm CST. The topic is living with Social Anxiety Disorder. And with it being live, this may be a chance for you to see me anxious in real life! Talk about a hundred reasons to be nervous about this! But I want to get the word out and help those who are struggling so I’ll do it.

Wish me luck!!!

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Tah Dah! HealthyPlace TV Show On Demand!

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Update: Time change
Sorry, I was wrong about the time for the show tonight. It will be airing at 7:30 CST, not 7:00. If you miss it don’t worry, I’ll post the show afterwards.

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 4: The Limbic System
The Limbic System is all about forming emotions and memories. Various structures make up this system and they are located in the center of the brain. The names of the parts of the limbic system are:

• Thalamus
• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Thalamus- The thalamus receives information outside of your body through your senses and then passes that information onto different parts of the brain, such as your cortex or your amydgala so that they can take action on it.

Hypothalamus- The hypothalamus receives information inside of your body to and from your organs. It starts your stress response by telling your adrenal glands that you are under stress so your glands can get you the energy you need. If your hypothalamus has too many neurons that respond to stress, you may be the type of person that overreacts emotionally and physically to normal, not so big stresses.

Hippocampus- The hippocampus records details, but just facts and data. No emotion is involved. It sends this data to your cortex to be processed.

Amygdala- The amygdala registers tone and intensity of emotions and notifies your brain, specifically the hypothalamus, immediately if it should prepare for problems. It registers all emotions, but prefers to notice the scary threatening ones. It’s like a smoke detector for your body and brain. It doesn’t respond to the yummy lasagna baking in the oven, but if the lasagna starts to burn than it will sound the alarm! You don’t have to be alert to joys in order to survive, but if you are threatened, you want your amygdala working to keep you alive. Once your amygdala learns what is dangerous, it tries to protect you from whatever scared you in the future. This is how triggers are born. And anytime you avoid your fears, it lets your amygdala know that its right and that it is a dangerous thing, which makes the trigger worse. 

Interesting stuff, huh! Something I have found that is really helpful for me- I have read over the information from my book several times, but I find that it really doesn’t sink in until I have to explain it in my own words when creating these posts. So, find a good friend or even a journal, and try to explain these things to them. You really have to understand it in order to repeat it.

What have you been learning about? I have LOVED the comments left on the forum for this challenge.

Parts of this post were paraphrased from The 10 Best- Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg.

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let’s Get Educated!

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Doctor D’s Anxiety Management Tips
So, last post I discussed Anxiety Disorder from the perspective of natural survival instincts.  Understanding that you are working with a natural reflex empowers you to find strategies that weaken this reflex until it is under your control. 

I’m going to go over several Anxiety management strategies.  All the well-educated readers of “Reality of Anxiety” probably have already heard these tips, but I am going to focus on how to understand their effectiveness in light of the anxiety reflex.

As I mentioned before the Anxiety reflex is a triggering of the “fight or flight” response that is designed to protect you from a threat to your life.  Unfortunately it often gets triggered when our lives aren’t in danger and the anxiety reaction does us more harm than good.

When the subconscious mind triggers the anxiety alarm, “Watch out, someone or something is trying to kill you!”  You immediately begin to search for evidence that the threat is real.  If your brain senses signs of danger then the “fight or flight” response is turned up.  If no danger is found or after the threat is gone your brain is supposed to turn off the reflex.  Unfortunately, when you have Anxiety disorder your “off switch” is harder to get at.

Many of the best Anxiety Management Tips tell your brain it’s time to hit the off switch:

Deep breathing:  Your brain pays careful attention to the body.  When the body acts like it is in danger the brain assumes their must be danger.  This can become a vicious cycle such as in a panic attack.  The good news is that you can use this to your advantage.  You conscious brain can take control of breathing.  By forcing yourself to take slow deep breaths you are sending a message to your unconscious brain that there is no real danger. 

Calm People:  Your brain is searching for signs of danger when you are anxious.  When other people respond to your anxiety by becoming anxious themselves your brain takes their behavior ask proof that there must be a real threat.  This is why high-strung families and friends can sometimes worsen your anxiety.  If all you see are unworried people who speak calmly then your subconscious gets the message that there isn’t a threat to your safety.  So tell people to try to stay mellow for you or hang out with calm people when you are anxious.

Positive Words:  I know is seems foolish to keep repeating to yourself, “I feel good.  I feel great.”  But your subconscious is listening.  Hearing soothing words even from your own mouth confirms that that the anxiety reflex was a false alarm.  Once again this is a way that you can use your conscious mind to tell your unconscious mind to turn off the stress response.

Exercise:  This technique works because it give the subconscious brain exactly what it is looking for.  Your brain wants to fight or run to get away from danger.  If you exercise to get yourself sweating and out of breath you brain assumes that the danger must be gone.  Exercise is like a reset button for your stress.  Your body relaxes and your blood pressure drops after aerobic exercise. 

Sometime people will need medicines that adjust brain chemistry to dampen the anxiety response, but often the best ways of combating this natural instinct are the natural ways that our own bodies can turn off the reaction.  Any Anxiety suffer probably knows a lot more techniques than these I mentioned. 

I encourage my patients to think about how the reflex works and how anxiety control techniques are helping their reflex realize there is no danger.  I have found that this perspective really helps people feel they have control over their anxiety.

-Doctor D (http://askanmd.blogspot.com/)

Doctor D is not an expert on Anxiety Disorder or even a psychiatrist.  He is a regular doctor who blogs at Ask An MD.  Doctor D has cared for lots of patients with anxiety while living a high stress life, so he has given a lot of thought to Anxiety.  Most of his experience is anecdotal from years of practicing medicine.  For specific treatments or advice about your own anxiety be sure to talk to your doctor.

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Stress and Survival Instincts
I am so excited to share with you the thoughts of Doctor D- a practicing MD who wants to help those looking for answers to their medical questions. He wants to participate in this month’s challenge by sharing with us in two posts what he knows about anxiety, specifically what we have been learning about with the Stress Response System.

“Understanding human stress instincts can be very empowering for someone with an Anxiety Disorder.
The trouble with human instincts is that they aren’t there to be understood but obeyed unquestioningly.  Understanding your instincts, however, takes away their mysterious power and makes them a function of your brain and body that you can comprehend and counterbalance.

The human stress response is an amazing system designed to keep you alive when threatened with death.  The reason you inherited such a powerful stress response is that it has worked, keeping generations of your ancestors alive.

Fortunately, most of us live in an environment in which real threats to our life and limb are very rare or non-existent.  For your hunter-gather ancestors violence and danger may have been around every corner, but you do your hunting and gathering at the local grocery with laws in place and police nearby to stop most violence.   So why are the safest human beings in history always so stressed?

Many of us have trouble turning off our instincts.  Survival reflexes often kick in when we don’t need them.  Your ancestors had brief periods of terror when they may have needed to “fight or flee” to survive.  These stressful periods in their lives usually ended quickly, and the body was able to recharge within a low-stress state.

The problem with modern stresses is while they may never kill you—they also never go away.  The number one thing people tell Doctor D they stress about is their finances.  Almost nobody in the US dies from being poor, but the pressures of monthly bills never go away.  The modern world uses deadlines and debt to keep us motivated to work, which keeps us constantly stressed.  A mortgage lasts 30 years!  Stressing for that long wrecks havoc on the body. 

In the short run stress reactions and “fight or flight” reflexes do wonders for a body in danger.  The immune and digestive systems slow to allow the muscles to get the greater share of the body’s power.  We increase fat stores and blood sugar to have instant energy ready. We become more sensitive to pain so we can detect threats more quickly.  We sleep poorly so we are constantly on alert.  The heart beats faster; the blood pressure is higher.  Our minds are constantly scanning our environment for threats, keeping us from focusing deeply on any one thing.  Trust me, if you are going into battle tomorrow this exactly how you want your body to behave!   But the body and brain cannot indefinitely sustain this state.  If it lasts too long your physical and emotional health can be significantly damaged.

People with Anxiety Disorders have inherited an extra helping of these survival reflexes.  The unending stress of modern life are constantly triggering these powerful, primitive reflexes.   Our daily problems need thoughtful problem solving—something that the “fight or flight” response gets in the way of.  The very instinct that is there to keep you alive makes you sick and keeps you from solving your problems.

So the important thing to understand about Anxiety is that it is a natural and healthy response.  Understanding that that what you feel in anxiety is a natural reaction helps you have a sense of control.  Realizing that it follows certain rules helps you respond to stress reactions thoughtfully.  Seeing that the “fight or flight” response is being triggered unnecessarily helps you know how to put it aside for when you really need it. 

Doctor D isn’t saying that understanding Stress instincts will make all Anxiety problems go away, but knowledge (such as the sort you are getting in the October Education Challenge) gives perspective and power that can make you own the Anxiety, so it doesn’t own you.”

Disclaimer:
Doctor D is not an expert on Anxiety Disorder or even a psychiatrist.  He is a regular doctor who blogs at Ask An MD.  Doctor D has cared for lots of patients with anxiety while living a high stress life, so he has given a lot of thought to Anxiety.  Most of his experience is anecdotal from years of practicing medicine.  For specific treatments or advice about your own anxiety be sure to talk to your doctor.

Thanks Doctor D!

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let’s Get Educated!

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System

At Speaking of Faith they have this to say about Coritsol,

“Cortisol is one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory drugs. In “The Mind-Body Interaction in Disease,” Sternberg describes this hormone and the role it plays in managing stress in the body: “Cortisol is a steroid hormone that increases the rate and strength of heart contractions, sensitizes blood vessels to the actions of norepinephrine (an adrenalinelike hormone) and affects many metabolic functions — actions that help the body meet a stressful situation. In addition, cortisol is a potent immunoregulator and anti-inflammatory agent. It plays a crucial role in preventing the immune system from overreacting to injuries and damaging tissues. Furthermore, cortisol inhibits the release of CRH by the hypothalamus — which keeps this component of the stress response under control. Thus, CRH and cortisol directly link the body’s brain-regulated stress response and its immune response.”

The stress response can work for any length of time. Small little releases of energy or short powerful bursts of energy or long extended periods of stress response when you are in an emotional situation or under the burden of high expectations. 

“The stress response is the body’s natural defence mechanism for dealing with danger. If activated for short periods of time the stress response will not cause the individual undue harm. However, if it is activated and sustained over long periods of time then both psychological and physical damage is likely to be experienced by the individual.”

In our case, we can become very anxious if we let ourselves stay stressed for too long.

Have you joined the monthly challenge yet? If so, tell me all about what you are reading and what you are learning about on the discussion forum! If not, there’s still plenty of time to get started.

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let’s Get Educated!

 

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