Your Brain, Rewired

We Know More About Anxiety Today Than Ever

Recent research has been out about how anxiety is processed and handled in the brain. Years of psychological interventions have addressed the cognitive side of anxiety, focusing on thought patterns and restructuring negative, anxiety provoking thoughts. Recent studies have shown that exploring cognitions associated with anxiety only address one way anxiety is processed in the brain, the less common way.

Cortex Based Anxiety

Cognitions are processed in the Cortex of the brain, the part of the brain responsible for reasoning, logical thinking, memories, meaning-making, and more. While anxiety can come from the Cortex, the Cortex takes a backseat in the world of anxiety and only addressing anxiety through the Cortex has made therapists and clients fall short.

Amygdala Based Anxiety

As we take information in, it is dispersed to the necessary parts of the brain. It is first dispersed to the amygdala to gauge whether this information is life-threatening or hazardous. If the information is dangerous, like seeing a car swerve into your lane on a freeway, then the amygdala will activate your fight/flight/freeze response. The amygdala is the first place that will process whether a situation is anxiety provoking or not and cannot be calmed by cognitive-based approaches, such as CBT.

If you’ve been experiencing anxiety for some time and the usual techniques have not helped, it may be time to look into amygdala reducing techniques. Check out this anxiety workbook, entitled “Your Brain, Rewired” to start reducing Amygdala based anxiety today.