The Anxious Brain And The Worry Cycle, What Causes It?

The anxious brain experiences anguish rather than fear. You feel exhausted and with your resources at the limit, due to the repetitive cycle of worry and the permanent feeling that you are surrounded by threats and pressures. From neuroscience, they point out that this condition would be caused by an overactivity of our brain amygdala, that sentinel of negative emotions.

Napoleon Bonaparte said that worries should be like clothes. Those pieces that we can take off at night to sleep more comfortably and those garments that, in turn, we would be allowed to wash from time to time to sanitize them. Now, it should be noted that these cognitive processes as such are mostly normal states of mind.

Ad Kerkhof clinical psychologist at the Vrije University of Amsterdam, points out a nuance in this regard. Worrying about certain things is, as we say, something perfectly understandable and logical. The problem comes when day after day, we worry about the “same things.” It is then that our cognitive efficiency fails and we make the worst possible use of that gift that is imagination.

Likewise, there is a doubt that experts in the field of neuroscience and emotions have always had. What happens in our brain to fall into this type of psychological drift? Why do we magnify to the point of not stopping thinking about them?

Anxiety is like the chisel of a skilled artist altering a myriad of mental focuses and brain processes. Knowing what means in this process will undoubtedly be of great help to us.

The anxious brain and the “hijacking” of the amygdala

An anxious brain is the opposite of an efficient brain. That is, while the second optimizes resources, makes good use of executive processes, enjoys an adequate emotional balance and a low level of stress, the first is the opposite. Hyperactivity, exhaustion  and even unhappiness inhabit him .

We know what anxiety tastes like and how you live in the middle of that cycle of thoughts that, like a Ferris wheel, do not stop turning always in the same direction and with the same sonata. However, what is happening inside? In a study published in the  American Journal of Psychiatry in 2007, they give us an interesting answer.

Emotions and pain

• The doctors 
• There is an increased reactivity in these structures. What happens then is that our emotional sensitivity is more intense. 

• Likewise, these areas are intended to anticipate threats from our environment and later induce an emotional state so that we react to those stimuli.
• However, when anxiety accompanies us for weeks or months, another unique aspect occurs. Our prefrontal cortex, in charge of promoting self-control and rationalizing our approach, is no longer so effective.

In other words, it is our amygdala who takes control, thus accelerating the intensity of obsessive thoughts. Likewise, it is worth noting another aspect that neurologists have seen in neuroimaging tests: anxiety causes brain pain. Activation in the anterior cingulate cortex seems to show this.

There are people with a greater tendency to excessive worry

We know that excessive worry can often lead us to states of anxiety of greater or lesser severity. However, why is it that there are those who better handle everyday worries and instead others fall into those obsessive and ruminant cycles?

• A study by the University of Quebec carried out by doctors 
• Other profiles, on the other hand, far from managing these processes, stagnate and intensify them.
• As this work explains, the anxious brain would sometimes have a genetic component. It is also known that highly sensitive people are also very prone to experiencing these types of psychological conditions.

How to handle worries effectively?

As you might expect, no one wants to have an anxious brain. We want an efficient, healthy and resilient brain. For this, it is necessary that we learn to control worries to keep anxiety at bay as much as possible. Because let’s not forget, few psychological realities are as exhausting (and painful) as this condition.

Let’s look at some simple keys to training worry control.

Time to live, time to worry

• This strategy is as simple as it is efficient. It is based on a cognitive-behavioral tool that recommends setting a very specific time for worries: 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon.
• During that time we can and should think about what worries us. We will also try to respond to these concerns and generate possible solutions.
• Beyond this period of time, we will not allow your entry. We will say to ourselves “now is not the time to think this.”

Positive memories as anchors

Worries are like crows flying over our mental fields. They will arrive without us calling them and they will hover over us when it is not due, outside of that time established for them.

When it appears we must be prepared to dissuade them, to hide them . One way to do this is through positive, relaxing anchoring. We can evoke a memory, a sensation, initiate a relaxing visualization.

To conclude, we need to take into account one aspect: these strategies take time and require will, continuity and commitment. It is not at all easy to tame the mind, calm the anxious brain. When we spend a good part of our lives letting ourselves be carried away by that annoying rumor that excessive worries leave behind, it is difficult to dissuade them.

However it can be done. You just have to turn off the anguish, dissolve the pressures, add renewed illusions to our gaze and do not forget physical exercise. The rest will come little by little.