Anxiety and the Amygdala

Glad you can relate! Well I was hoping the more we ignore and don’t react the better off we’ll be long term until we get to a point where the signal stops misfiring, could be wrong though.

Yeah I am thinking the same thing. If I just continue to be mindful and not afraid of it, it'll eventually stop firing. Or like desensitizing yourself to the feeling of it so much you don't even notice it.

Yes I know exactly what you mean there. Like I said , sometimes I get no reaction at all, it depends if my anxiety at the time is just generally higher for no reason that the sensations seem more noticeable and more annoying. Just sit it out and see what happens ! No point worrying about it. It’s a false reaction and I know that . Harmless too.

I read something today about the amygdala, that you can help to retrain it. Basically when you get that feeling where you know it's misfiring you have to counter act that by doing something that makes you calm or happy. Eventually it'll learn not to fire during that time. Another thing is teaching it nothing is wrong by going to the places and doing the things that you have been avoiding...by creating a new perspective on it and you are able to stay calm during the worry it'll help reset the perspective and help with the issue. I'm going to try it and see if these things help...I can reply back here if I notice any difference.

Interested to know how it goes Andrew.

Sure, I'll report back in the next few days

Followimg

Since I've started to do this, I've found my anxiety has dropped a nice bit. I have been feeling progressively better every day even before starting to do this but I found facing my fears and becoming comfortable by relaxing when I'm stressed has helped my amygdala from misfiring so often. I've been relaxing whenever I get stressed and feel my stomach get that misfire feeling and listening to calm music. I've found for myself the miss fires have happened less often over the past week since starting to do this. One of my fears was going to a store (walmart) on my own which I did last week, and since then I've felt less worried about entering a store on my own. I can report back in another week to see if I notice more improvement.

I've found I can break my anxiety attack into 5 stages that I've found if I can change from stressed to relaxed in stage 3 you can stop it from progressing farther.

Stage 1: Muscle tension - Something will hurt or feel weird as a result of stress.

Stage 2: Intrusive thought - A bad thought that is very serious usually circles around something being seriously wrong and something bad is about to happen to me.

Stage 3: Feeling from thought - This is the scared feeling you get from the weird or unusual feeling you have. I've found if you can divert this and relax yourself and act like you are happy and relaxed rather then stressed it tells the brain it's response to the thought was incorrect.

Stage 4: Anxiety - This is when you can't stop the feeling from the thought and you start to get that anxious feeling through out your body. I've found once I get here I am unable to stop Step 5 from happening. Changing the thought is difficult to do when you are distracted, I find it hard when I am driving my car over the highway because I'm unable to change my mood or distract myself.

Step 5: Anxiety attack - Feeling weird. panic etc we know what this is.

Hi, no I haven’t. I’ve heard of exposure therapy though but was kinda hoping to just live my life normally and take the anxiety with me until it eventually stops giving wrong signals, do you have any information relating to this subject ? 

I do cbt!

Does this eventually calm the mind to such a state where it removes the root of the fear then? Thus making new memories / associations over time? 

CBT is extremely effective. It can change your life. Give it a go.