Anxiety Disorders

[Credo in Deum]

What does this mean?

 

 IDK.  Reading it made me kind of...

[Lilllabettt]

fyi... i switched to the developmental psychology program, pretty much the same but neuro more on the side.

 

so basically in the bottom parts of your brain you have these old timey anatomical structures that are responsible for a lot of what we think of as basic instinct. for example: sex drive. stress reactions, etc.  the upper parts of your brain include stuff like the cortex - which is the highly evolved stuff, where we do the thinking we like to think makes us "human." there are neural pathways running from the bottom parts of your brain (ex. amygdala, hippocampus) to the upper parts. the cortex and the old timey parts "talk" to each other, so to speak.

 

Okay .. .so for anxiety ...  this is a gross simplification, but here goes .... 

 

if your system is exposed to enough shock, especially early in life, your subcortical old timey systems can get so they are overreactive. For example,  if you were stressed out a lot as a kid, the pathway between your amygdala and the cortex has become a well worn road - its hyperpotentiated -- so that now small things in your environment can set it off. You are sensitive to negative valence -- negatively charged stimuli in the environment.  Negative body language, vocal tones, facial expressions, etc. Your brain is holding in a "brace" or "siege" position.  A non existential threat results in the amygdala shouting down the cortex: "she looked at you the wrong way, run for your life motherchucker!" It may take considerable effort to muscle up the cortex to beat down the amygdala and tell it "shut up, youre being irrational." This is a skill that can be learned -- cognitive behavior therapy has been successful in teaching a lot of people how to do this. But the initial experience of upset, the initial discomfort and pain of a screaming amygdala - this, according to conventional wisdom, cannot be reversed. There is no known mechanism for neural pathway depotentiation, although research is advancing in this area.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2014 by Lilllabettt

[cmaD2006]

I don't have an anxiety disorder ... when I was younger I think I did have one. Major catastrophizing. I've mostly turned off the spigots with aggressive mental hygiene. the sad panda part is that over time the subcortical structures in my limbic system got hyper sensitive to negative valence in whatever environment I find myself-- which is irreversible.

:hehe:

 

A lot of it was over my head, too, but she's studying for a Master's in Educational Neuropsychology (?).  This was bound to happen...

 

I hate to admit this ... I actually understand what Lilllabettt wrote ..... (and no, me no Neuropsych specialist).

[Era Might]

motherchucker!

 

:shocking:

[Credo in Deum]

fyi... i switched to the developmental psychology program, pretty much the same but neuro more on the side.

 

so basically in the bottom parts of your brain you have these old timey anatomical structures that are responsible for a lot of what we think of as basic instinct. for example: sex drive. stress reactions, etc.  the upper parts of your brain include stuff like the cortex - which is the highly evolved stuff, where we do the thinking we like to think makes us "human." there are neural pathways running from the bottom parts of your brain (ex. amygdala, hippocampus) to the upper parts. the cortex and the old timey parts "talk" to each other, so to speak.

 

Okay .. .so for anxiety ...  this is a gross simplification, but here goes .... 

 

if your system is exposed to enough shock, especially early in life, your subcortical old timey systems can get so they are overreactive. For example,  if you were stressed out a lot as a kid, the pathway between your amygdala and the cortex has become a well worn road - its hyperpotentiated -- so that now small things in your environment can set it off. You are sensitive to negative valence -- negatively charged stimuli in the environment.  Negative body language, vocal tones, facial expressions, etc. Your brain is holding in a "brace" or "siege" position.  A non existential threat results in the amygdala shouting down the cortex: "she looked at you the wrong way, run for your life motherchucker!" It may take considerable effort to muscle up the cortex to beat down the amygdala and tell it "shut up, youre being irrational." This is a skill that can be learned -- cognitive behavior therapy has been successful in teaching a lot of people how to do this. But the initial experience of upset, the initial discomfort and pain of a screaming amygdala - this, according to conventional wisdom, cannot be reversed. There is no known mechanism for neural pathway depotentiation, although research is advancing in this area.

[Era Might]

 

fyi... i switched to the developmental psychology program, pretty much the same but neuro more on the side.

 

so basically in the bottom parts of your brain you have these old timey anatomical structures that are responsible for a lot of what we think of as basic instinct. for example: sex drive. stress reactions, etc.  the upper parts of your brain include stuff like the cortex - which is the highly evolved stuff, where we do the thinking we like to think makes us "human." there are neural pathways running from the bottom parts of your brain (ex. amygdala, hippocampus) to the upper parts. the cortex and the old timey parts "talk" to each other, so to speak.

 

Okay .. .so for anxiety ...  this is a gross simplification, but here goes .... 

 

if your system is exposed to enough shock, especially early in life, your subcortical old timey systems can get so they are overreactive. For example,  if you were stressed out a lot as a kid, the pathway between your amygdala and the cortex has become a well worn road - its hyperpotentiated -- so that now small things in your environment can set it off. You are sensitive to negative valence -- negatively charged stimuli in the environment.  Negative body language, vocal tones, facial expressions, etc. Your brain is holding in a "brace" or "siege" position.  A non existential threat results in the amygdala shouting down the cortex: "she looked at you the wrong way, run for your life motherchucker!" It may take considerable effort to muscle up the cortex to beat down the amygdala and tell it "shut up, youre being irrational." This is a skill that can be learned -- cognitive behavior therapy has been successful in teaching a lot of people how to do this. But the initial experience of upset, the initial discomfort and pain of a screaming amygdala - this, according to conventional wisdom, cannot be reversed. There is no known mechanism for neural pathway depotentiation, although research is advancing in this area.

 

 

[Lilllabettt]

I hate to admit this ... I actually understand what Lilllabettt wrote ..... (and no, me no Neuropsych specialist).

:)

 

Believe it or not world I am actually not trying to look like an egghead 

[Spem in alium]

Yes. Major depression, anxiety and mild PTSD. I'm dealing quite well now, but teenage years were rough.

[Maggyie]

Dude I do the worrying about death thing too! In fact I used to make my husband text me when he got to work so I would know he survived his commute. Now I have a tracker thing on my smartphone so I know he made it safely. Love it when technology enables my mental illness.

Seriously I went through a period of really bad health anxiety a few years ago. I didn't sleep for days at a time. Some of the things I worried about came true. But I realized this is more a result of the odds of looking for disaster everywhere - you're bound to "foretell" it accurately every once in awhile if you're constantly expecting it. It's just the odds. I'm not a bad news psychic. I remind myself of this when I feel my anxiety starting to mount.

[PhuturePriest]

Protip: everyone suffers from anxiety all the time. That's not a disorder that's normal.

 

Everyone suffers from stress. Anxiety is a different beast altogether, and anxiety disorders are yet another beast. The stressed person is worried about paying bills on time, the person with the anxiety disorder cries because he has an irrational belief that his parents adopted him, or that they're using him as some sort of experiment (This is a seriously common thing among people with anxiety disorders.).

[PhuturePriest]

fyi... i switched to the developmental psychology program, pretty much the same but neuro more on the side.

 

so basically in the bottom parts of your brain you have these old timey anatomical structures that are responsible for a lot of what we think of as basic instinct. for example: sex drive. stress reactions, etc.  the upper parts of your brain include stuff like the cortex - which is the highly evolved stuff, where we do the thinking we like to think makes us "human." there are neural pathways running from the bottom parts of your brain (ex. amygdala, hippocampus) to the upper parts. the cortex and the old timey parts "talk" to each other, so to speak.

 

Okay .. .so for anxiety ...  this is a gross simplification, but here goes .... 

 

if your system is exposed to enough shock, especially early in life, your subcortical old timey systems can get so they are overreactive. For example,  if you were stressed out a lot as a kid, the pathway between your amygdala and the cortex has become a well worn road - its hyperpotentiated -- so that now small things in your environment can set it off. You are sensitive to negative valence -- negatively charged stimuli in the environment.  Negative body language, vocal tones, facial expressions, etc. Your brain is holding in a "brace" or "siege" position.  A non existential threat results in the amygdala shouting down the cortex: "she looked at you the wrong way, run for your life motherchucker!" It may take considerable effort to muscle up the cortex to beat down the amygdala and tell it "shut up, youre being irrational." This is a skill that can be learned -- cognitive behavior therapy has been successful in teaching a lot of people how to do this. But the initial experience of upset, the initial discomfort and pain of a screaming amygdala - this, according to conventional wisdom, cannot be reversed. There is no known mechanism for neural pathway depotentiation, although research is advancing in this area.

 

I identify very much with what you described. I remember last year my dad brought me to a mud run, and the loud engines were freaking me out and made me want to cry. I knew what the engines were, and I wasn't worried about danger, but the sound just set me into an irrational panic. I think it's because it reminded me of screaming.

[PhuturePriest]

Dude I do the worrying about death thing too! In fact I used to make my husband text me when he got to work so I would know he survived his commute. Now I have a tracker thing on my smartphone so I know he made it safely. Love it when technology enables my mental illness.

Seriously I went through a period of really bad health anxiety a few years ago. I didn't sleep for days at a time. Some of the things I worried about came true. But I realized this is more a result of the odds of looking for disaster everywhere - you're bound to "foretell" it accurately every once in awhile if you're constantly expecting it. It's just the odds. I'm not a bad news psychic. I remind myself of this when I feel my anxiety starting to mount.

 

Oh, absolutely. I've done a lot of research, and worrying about the death of someone you are very close to is common among those with anxiety disorders. I no longer worry about my dad being dead if he doesn't answer the phone, but I think I mentioned in the original post about how sometimes if my friends don't answer or respond to texts, I'll sometimes automatically think that they died. One of my best friends quite recently didn't talk to me on the phone for five weeks, which is unusual, since we usually talk every two weeks. For the first few weeks she would text me back and forth, but in the last two weeks she stopped replying to my texts completely, and I had a complete breakdown and thought she either died or hated me and never wanted to talk to me again. Turns out she's just being a normal self-centered teenager and is centering her life on her relationship right now, and she's blowing off all of her other friends to be around him all the time, too.

[PhuturePriest]

Dude I do the worrying about death thing too! In fact I used to make my husband text me when he got to work so I would know he survived his commute. Now I have a tracker thing on my smartphone so I know he made it safely. Love it when technology enables my mental illness.

Seriously I went through a period of really bad health anxiety a few years ago. I didn't sleep for days at a time. Some of the things I worried about came true. But I realized this is more a result of the odds of looking for disaster everywhere - you're bound to "foretell" it accurately every once in awhile if you're constantly expecting it. It's just the odds. I'm not a bad news psychic. I remind myself of this when I feel my anxiety starting to mount.

 

This is an awesome interview on the Colbert Report that shows things like worrying about other people dying is quite normal: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/szyyzo/scott-stossel

[Perigrina]

Everyone suffers from stress. Anxiety is a different beast altogether, and anxiety disorders are yet another beast. The stressed person is worried about paying bills on time, the person with the anxiety disorder cries because he has an irrational belief that his parents adopted him, or that they're using him as some sort of experiment (This is a seriously common thing among people with anxiety disorders.).

 

Good explanation.  When my husband was diagnosed with cancer, I worried about him dying. (Turned out the tumour was benign.) This is quite different from a person who worries about people dying whenever they are out of sight.

[Ash Wednesday]

I have an anxiety disorder. Don't get me started on how it's reared its ugly head into my life. I long for a day when I feel life is stable but I've realized that even then, I will probably find something to be anxious about. Even when life was more certain and stable in the past, I found things to have anxiety over. 

 

Protip: everyone suffers from anxiety all the time. That's not a disorder that's normal.

 

Protip: anxiety disorders aren't just "normal worrying" and are clearly defined and accepted in the medical field as a real problem that warrants professional treatment.