notes/personal/mental health/Anxiety.md
2024-07-31 12:17:17 -06:00

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Mindsets of anxiety

There are a few general ways that anxiety can manifest.

  • Perfectionism
  • Over-responsibility
  • Intolerance of uncertainty

When you're feeling anxious about something, it's important to ask yourself, "What about this is actually dangerous?"

The amygdala is a primal part of the brain, an important part of your survival instincts as a human. The role of the amygdala is to create the train of thought:

  1. Is it dangerous?
  2. How can we handle it? From there, we can:
  • Go into a safety strategy (usually avoidance, something from the broader category of fight, flight, or freeze)
  • Lean into the stressor.

When you begin acting on a safety strategy, your brain records the event, and your amygdala will become more sensitive to it, triggering those feelings of anxiety.

How do we break that cycle of anxiety?

  • Become aware of what your amygdala is detecting, is it a thought, or physical sensation?

Sometimes when we get very anxious, it can overwhelm our coping mechanisms.

The Safe Calm Place