Anxiety can make it difficult for you to function because it takes over.
You have pangs in the pit of your stomach, a faster heart beat, and the feeling that you really need to get started on whatever it is that needs doing. It’s anxiety setting in. Sometimes anxiety hits you like a brick and at other times, it sneaks in and hangs out, ruining your ability to concentrate, and more, without you even realizing it.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders represent the most common mental illness known among Americans. This disorder affects up to 40 million adults in the US. That’s just under 20% of the entire population, and while you would think that with such high numbers people would be getting the help they need but not so, really. Only about 37% of those who suffer from anxiety get treatment for it.
What happens in your head when an anxiety attack hits? Here’s a look.
What is anxiety?
Having some anxiety in your life is normal. Anxiety is a reaction to stress and it can actually be helpful. This response can make you more alert to possible dangers around you and spur you to pay attention to avoid them. The feeling involves more than just being nervous and can manifest itself as the following, and more:
- feelings of restlessness
- Tension
- impending doom or danger
- rapid breathing
- an increased heart rate
- trouble concentrating
Various forms of anxiety disorders exist including agoraphobia, separation anxiety, selective mutism, and more.
The downsides to anxiety include several facts. People living with some type of anxiety disorder are said to be 6 times more likely to be hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder compared with those who don’t have the disorder. This group is also more likely to suffer from depression and about 3 to 5 times more likely to visit the doctor.
While an anxiety disorder can be something you inherit, it is also thought to be caused by life events.
How your brain responds to anxiety
In a study done by researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center, it was found that people with anxiety can’t control their feelings and behaviors even if they desire to do so.
Participants were asked to navigate through a virtual game of picking flowers. Half of the flowers had bees in them that would “sting” them through a slight electrical stimulation on their hand. All the participants could tell the difference between the dangerous areas of the virtual meadow and the safe areas. But there lay a difference between what was going on in the brains of those with anxiety.
The participants’ brain activity was being examined using fMRI technology throughout the activity. Those who lived with anxiety had increased activity in their insula and part of their prefrontal cortex. Even when they were moving through a known “safe” area of the virtual field, their brain was associating this with a threat and danger.
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“These findings tell us that anxiety disorders might be more than a lack of awareness of the environment or ignorance of safety, but rather that individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder cannot control their feelings and behavior even if they wanted to,” said Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester.
“The patients with an anxiety disorder could rationally say — I’m in a safe space — but we found their brain was behaving as if it was not,” he added.
What’s next
Suarez-Jimenez says he believes by better understanding what deficits occur in the behavioral regulation in safe environments in people with anxiety, better treatment options can be developed.
Finding it hard to deal with your anxiety? Click here for tips on how to use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to get going in the right direction.
photo credits: zimmytws/Shutterstock.com
