Anxiety & The Amygdala
According to the American Psychiatric Association, anxiety is different to fear. Fear is considered a response to an immediate threat, be it real or perceived. Anxiety is defined more as the expectation of future threat. Fear is defined as short-lived, present and focused. Whereas anxiety is defined as slow-moving, future-focused and more related to diffuse threats at some future point. Yet there can be no doubt that anxiety and fear overlap physically and mentally in a big way.
Anxiety is a mental and physical response to an actual or perceived threat. Although we usually associate anxiety with some kind of threat, it can be triggered by a wide range of situations. We can feel anxious about something happening now or the outcome of a future event that hasn’t even happened yet. We also often feel anxious when we experience extreme desire and are faced with the possibility of not being met, Like wanting to pass your exams but worrying that you might not. Anxiety is so common that it is one of the most frequent symptoms discussed amongst psychiatrists and neurologists. Anxiety also features in the majority of chronic diseases.
Anxiety has been defined as an emotional response to actual or potential danger. Under the anxiety banner, we can experience sustained arousal, hypervigilance, persistent worry and apprehension. These emotional nuances can some of the time also spill over into chronic health disorders. Conditions like migraine, insomnia, IBS, and autoimmune diseases are known to be closely related to mental health challenges like anxiety and the trauma that often leads to it.
For many, the big question about anxiety and anxiety disorders is what causes some of us to experience them and others to seemingly get off Scot free. No matter what the holistic truth is about the full cause of anxiety, there is no doubt that the amygdala plays a key role, and it is certainly not possible to really understand anxiety without understanding the amygdala.
A large number of studies suggest that the amygdala is the central organ of the nervous system‘s anxiety response. And while it definitely doesn’t act alone in generating the fight or flight response, it definitely conducts the orchestra.
The amygdala is a paired structure in the brain’s temporal lobe, which is about the same size and shape as an almond. The amygdala is primarily responsible for the body’s fight, flight, and freeze mechanisms, which means that it is a little bit like a piece of security equipment for an animal living in the big outdoors. When there is a perceived or potential threat in the environment, the amygdala signals the adrenal glands to activate the body’s fight or flight mechanisms. This is an ancient mechanism handed to us by our most distant ancestors, and obviously one not well suited to modern life.
The neurotransmitters involved in anxiety are CRF, norepinephrine and glucocorticoids. Modulators of these neurotransmitters include serotonin, dopamine and ascetical line. The balance of these chemicals within the amygdala reflects a healthy balance of the nervous system’s fight or flight. Changes in the chemistry of the amygdala are not, however, ‘the cause’ of anxiety. Changes in brain chemistry of this type or reactions to stress within a nervous system that thinks it needs to defend itself. Trauma and persistent forms of environmental stress are the true cause of the ‘chemical imbalances’ we see in sufferers of anxiety disorders, PTSD and the like.
Research has uncovered some fascinating and disturbing facts about the amygdala in cases of trauma PTSD and childhood anxiety. It has been well documented that changes in the size of the amygdala are an accurate way to predict sensitivity to conditions like anxiety and PTSD. Whether these relationships between the size of the amygdala and conditions like anxiety is a causal relationship remains to be fully disclosed by the data.
The neurotransmitters involved in anxiety are CRF, norepinephrine and glucocorticoids. Modulators of these neurotransmitters include serotonin, dopamine and ascetical line. The balance of these chemicals within the amygdala reflects a healthy balance of the nervous system’s fight or flight. Changes in the chemistry of the amygdala are not, however, ‘the cause’ of anxiety. Changes in brain chemistry of this type or reactions to stress within a nervous system that thinks it needs to defend itself. Trauma and persistent forms of environmental stress are the true cause of the ‘chemical imbalances’ we see in sufferers of anxiety disorders, PTSD and the like.
Research has uncovered some fascinating and disturbing facts about the amygdala in cases of trauma PTSD and childhood anxiety. It has been well documented that changes in the size of the amygdala are an accurate way to predict sensitivity to conditions like anxiety and PTSD. Whether these relationships between the size of the amygdala and conditions like anxiety is a causal relationship remains to be fully disclosed by the data.
On a more human (and less sciency level), having an amygdala that is persistently over-activated involves a lot of pain and suffering. The full spectrum of human experience that spans low-level anxiety right through to crippling PTSD is a really miserable one. The tragic tale of fear and anxiety experienced by humans who went through difficult things in the past is a long one that continues to this very day.
The happy news, on the other hand, is that we now live in an age where we understand the brain but also the concept of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a principle that describes the brain’s ability to adapt and change. Neuroplasticity can involve positive brain changes involved in learning and adaptation, but it can also involve the unlearning of fear and anxiety.
Breakthrough treatments and therapies for anxiety, anxiety disorders, trauma and PTSD are growing in numbers and popularity. Many Of these treatments act on the nervous system in a way that reduces the system activation of the amygdala and the miserable list of symptoms created by that issue in the long term.
EMDR Therapy, Brainwave Entrainment, Trauma Release Exercises, and Psychedelic Assisted Therapies are all well worth investigating for those who wish to lead a happier and less fearful life; by healing the type of unseen ‘old wounds’ that lie out of sight, deep in our nervous systems. These breakthrough therapies can work as excellent add-on’s to the more traditional Therapy, Counseling, CBT, and NLP Practitioner approaches.
On a more human (and less sciency level), having an amygdala that is persistently over-activated involves a lot of pain and suffering. The full spectrum of human experience that spans low-level anxiety right through to crippling PTSD is a really miserable one. The tragic tale of fear and anxiety experienced by humans who went through difficult things in the past is a long one that continues to this very day.
The happy news, on the other hand, is that we now live in an age where we understand the brain but also the concept of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a principle that describes the brain’s ability to adapt and change. Neuroplasticity can involve positive brain changes involved in learning and adaptation, but it can also involve the unlearning of fear and anxiety.
Breakthrough treatments and therapies for anxiety, anxiety disorders, trauma and PTSD are growing in numbers and popularity. Many Of these treatments act on the nervous system in a way that reduces the system activation of the amygdala and the miserable list of symptoms created by that issue in the long term.
EMDR Therapy, Brainwave Entrainment, Trauma Release Exercises, and Psychedelic Assisted Therapies are all well worth investigating for those who wish to lead a happier and less fearful life; by healing the type of unseen ‘old wounds’ that lie out of sight, deep in our nervous systems. These breakthrough therapies can work as excellent add-on’s to the more traditional Therapy, Counseling, CBT, and NLP Practitioner approaches.