Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Sager here. Listen. I get anxious. You do too,
Speaker 1: But hey, it is a totally normal and healthy response
Speaker 1: that keeps us from doing things that might actually be dangerous,
Speaker 1: like sticking your hand in a fire, for instance. But
Speaker 1: when anxiety is so pervasive that it interferes with your
Speaker 1: daily life, it becomes a disorder, and most researchers believe
Speaker 1: that disorder begins in your brain. There's several types of
Speaker 1: anxiety disorders. Phobias, PTSD and o c D are just
Speaker 1: a few, and some forty million American adults suffer from
Speaker 1: an anxiety disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Speaker 1: But let's focus today on general anxiety disorder, which affects
Speaker 1: close to seven million adults and is twice as likely
Speaker 1: in women. You're constantly anticipating a threat or disaster that
Speaker 1: isn't actually present. Maybe you're worried about money, health, family,
Speaker 1: or work, and despite reality, you'll expect the worst. The
Speaker 1: symptoms include restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, and
Speaker 1: sleep disturbances. The symptoms officially become a disorder when you
Speaker 1: can't control your worry for at least six months. You
Speaker 1: may still be social or even employed, but people with
Speaker 1: general anxiety disorder can have difficulty carrying out even the
Speaker 1: simplest of daily activities. Experts believe that general anxiety disorder
Speaker 1: is caused by both biological factors and life experiences good
Speaker 1: old combination of nature and nurture, But anxiety is also
Speaker 1: recognized by many as an emotional response with neurobiological roots.
Speaker 1: Simply put, the neural pathways in our brains sometimes lead
Speaker 1: to irrational anxiety, and stressful situations encourage us to develop
Speaker 1: associations with those pathways by in fluencing which neurochemicals passed
Speaker 1: through them. The same way you learn to tie your shoe,
Speaker 1: you can also learn to be anxious. The neurons in
Speaker 1: your brain fire, and over time they get wired together.
Speaker 1: One stressful thing like being stuck in traffic, leads you
Speaker 1: to think of another stressful thing, like a car crash
Speaker 1: you once survived, and this activates a part of the
Speaker 1: brain stem called the locus ceruleus. This triggers the symptoms
Speaker 1: of anxiety by releasing neuro epinephrin into your spinal cord
Speaker 1: and parts of your brain while hormones like adrenaline and
Speaker 1: cortisol spread through your body. It's supposed to initiate an
Speaker 1: analgesic response to suppress pain and initiate defense when you're
Speaker 1: under threat, like if you were actually in a car
Speaker 1: crash and injured. But when there isn't any actual threat,
Speaker 1: all were left with is the jitters of anxiety. A
Speaker 1: couple other things about the brain contribute to anxiety. Researchers
Speaker 1: at Massachusetts General HOSTI but WILL have found that people
Speaker 1: with a thicker ventrol medial prefuntal cortex are less likely
Speaker 1: to get anxiety. Basically, some brains have more armor against
Speaker 1: anxiety inducing situations than others. We don't have enough time
Speaker 1: in this episode for a full accounting of the treatments
Speaker 1: available for anxiety disorders, but you should know that only
Speaker 1: one third of the people suffering from anxiety are actually
Speaker 1: getting help, even though it's highly manageable. Treatment usually involves
Speaker 1: a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy a k a. Talking
Speaker 1: to a therapist, and medications to relieve the symptoms. Other
Speaker 1: treatments include relaxation techniques like meditation, improve nutrition, exercise, and
Speaker 1: adequate sleep. Medications will change your brain chemistry temporarily, and
Speaker 1: some even dispute that, but they are not a cure
Speaker 1: for anxiety. For that, you'll need to change your neural
Speaker 1: pathways associations by learning new behaviors through therapy. This method
Speaker 1: of learning new everyday strategies can be slow going and repetitious,
Speaker 1: but scan show that you can literally change your brain
Speaker 1: with enough practice. Check out the brainstuff channel on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and for more on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com