It’s a lovely spring weekend, so you decide one Saturday morning to take a hike on the Billy Goat Trail at scenic Great Falls. As you’re walking along the dirt path, a three-foot snake slithers out from the bushes and passes just a foot in front of you, then he stealthily slips into the bushes on the other side of the path. You stop dead in your tracks. Your heart rate jumps, and you begin to sweat. Your automatic reaction is natural. It’s fear, a negative emotional state triggered by the presence of a stimulus that can potentially cause harm. This reaction to something dangerous helps our bodies prepare to take action, such as fighting through forceful resistance or fleeing by running away. You’ve heard of this instinctive physiological response as “fight or flight.”
When you return to the same trail the next month, your friend notices you’re sweating even though it’s cool outside, and you look worried and preoccupied as you walk near the spot where you encountered the snake last time. Your heart starts to beat faster. The reaction is a negative emotional state in which the threat isn’t actually present but anticipated. This is anxiety. Because of the initial experience of fear, you have now developed some anxiety associated with snakes while hiking.
The amygdala which regulates emotions, outside of your conscious awareness, is responding in both the situations: first, where the real danger was present and in the second scenario, where you simply thought about and anticipated danger when none existed. Thus, the amygdala region of your brain formed an association between the two events. The amygdala is inferior to the gray matter area of the cerebral hemisphere, and it’s involved with the experiencing of emotions. When the neutral stimulus (the certain part of the Billy Goat trail where you initially saw the snake) happens, the amygdala is automatically activated like the original dangerous situation of actually crossing paths with the snake, which causes fear and triggers anxiety.
Having the ability to detect and discern dangerous situations is a useful survival mechanism that our ancestors used, and it is innate with animals as well as in humans. Since we have a higher ability to anticipate situations and project ourselves into the future, it stands to reason that we experience anxiety way more than animals. Because we can think about, ruminate, and try to avoid our fears, we can develop anxiety disorders, which are marked by excessive fear, often in the absence of true danger.
According to researcher Lisa Shin (2010), there is a 28% lifetime prevalence of any anxiety disorder. Among the most common anxiety disorders are generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Fears encompass many realms but common phobias include fear of public speaking, flying, dying, snakes, small spaces, germs, spiders, heights … the list goes on.
Anxiety disorders can impair your life, from work to relationships, and they can be costly in terms of treatment and damage to your overall health and well-being. Neuroimaging studies of anxiety disorders are proving useful in predicting how our brain circuitry may respond to different stimuli and treatments.
Awareness is a crucial skill that you will need to overcome anxiety. Taking notice of how the anxiety is affecting you both mentally and physically is the first step toward getting some control over the situation. You can learn self-awareness, but it takes time and patience.
Shin, L. M., & Liberzon, I. (2010). The Neurocircuitry of Fear, Stress, and Anxiety Disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35(1), 169–191. http://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.83
Systemic Wellness 