We hear the word anxiety quite often these days. We know the word and have a sense of its meaning but there is much about this fact of human life that we don’t know. For example, we may not have realized that anxiety by design is normal and even healthy. There are however factors that contribute to driving the natural order of anxiety into disorder. One of the primary contributing factors is how we relate with anxiety including how we might judge this unique state of consciousness to be the enemy.

The purpose of this information is to go under the hood and  clarify the mechanics of anxiety. This deeper understanding of anxiety’s inner clicks and switches may enable us to change our approach to anxiety at large. This working knowledge may empower us to respond to anxiety’s organic process with a wisdom that may even improve our quality of life.

This is a 6- part series on the Science of Anxiety Disorders. Throughout the course of this series we will learn about;

Part 1: Defining Anxiety’s general science and biology

What is the general science of Disordered Anxiety?

What is known about the biological science of Anxiety?

How does the body reduce the adrenalin?

Part 2: Defining hyper-sensitivity, worry, & panic attacks

What causes some people to be hypersensitive?

What drives individuals to worry? 

What is the difference between and anxiety attack and a panic attack? 

Part 3: The Psychology of Anxiety – Part-I

What is known about the psychological science of Anxiety Disorders?

How does our relationship with our Core Belief and Compensatory

Thinking System contribute to disordered anxiety?

How does our relationship with the illusion of control impact our sympathetic nervous system?

 Part 4: The Psychology of Anxiety – Part-II

How does our relationship with Expectations contribute to   disordered anxiety?

How does our relationship with stressors impact our anxiety levels? 

How does our relationship with worry-doubt-fear contribute to disordered anxiety?

Part 5: The Psychology of Anxiety – Part-III

How does our relationship with Trauma contribute to disordered anxiety?

How does our relationship with adrenalin impact our anxiety?

Part 6: The impact of disordered anxiety and the influence of mood

How does Disordered Anxiety impact our Psychological Energy?

What are the 5-Wells of the Soul?

What is known about the influence of mood on Anxiety Disorders?

Part 1: Defining Anxiety’s general science and biology

What is the general science of Disordered Anxiety?

The science of the mental health disorders surrounding anxiety revolve around 3- general dimensions. These 3-dimensions include Biology (what is happening in the brain), Psychology (what is happening in the mind), and Mood (what is happening with feelings and emotions). It is important to note that the strongest and most influential dimension is the psychological dimension. This is true because the body follows the mind giving credence to the notion that we live where we believe. We tend to believe  in that which we find valuable or useful. Thus, if we value Control more than we value Serenity then we may well become anxiety producing machines.

Metaphorically speaking, if we placed an Anxiety Disorder under a high-resolution microscope, we would see these 3-dimensions working together to create a cycle of biology-psychology and mood. This anxiety producing cycle involves abnormally high levels of adrenalin/epinephrine. This specific biochemistry then generates simultaneous worry episodes that race through the mind with a debilitating persistence. Subsequently, this worry psychology produces prolonged periods of restlessness that leave the individual feeling edgy and irritable. Overtime the relentless cycling of this disordered anxiety depletes the individual’s psychological energy while at the same time increasing the individual’s fear of stress. The increased fear of stressors then accelerates the internal worry machine. As the worry machine speeds up so does the production of adrenalin. When the adrenalin levels spike the animal brain reads those levels as a sign of an impending threat to survival. The animal brain then prepares the body to fight, run, or freeze creating what is commonly known as a panic attack.

Once the mind and body learn to work against each other in this manner the individual tends to become stuck in this disordered cycle. This is particularly true after the first panic attack which creates a hallmark experience within the anxiety ridden individual’s mind. This event is marked by the shockingly debilitating helplessness that is experienced during the panic attack. Frequently individuals react to the panic attack with fear which is to say they become afraid of the panic attack experience. The primary aspect of the attack that the individual comes to fear is the physical experience of the survival reaction. The biological dimension of the panic surrounds enormous quantities of adrenalin in the blood stream. Thus, the specific feature of which the individual is afraid surrounds the visceral and literal feeling of adrenalin in the bloodstream. At this point the individual has a fully developed anxiety disorder that includes what is known as the fear of fear.

It should be noted that because our individual relationship with the forces and instincts at work in our body tend to lie outside of our understanding, we will be inclined to react rather than respond to biological events. Reacting means that choice is absent and choice is absent because awareness is not present. When we are consciously aware we become capable of employing cognition. We can then create thoughtful response. This choice and ability to respond is called agency or the ability to intervene and change the course of eventual outcomes. This clarifies that we are not capable of choice surrounding our relationship to biochemical occurrences in the human body until we arrive at a conscious awareness about what is happening in our body. Choice appears on the scene when we begin to grasp an understanding about what meaning or agenda the body is trying to impart. It is only then that we are capable of responding cognitively by sending a thoughtful response to the body’s initial biochemical message. Thus, the fear reaction step in the cycle of the anxiety disorder suggests that an individual’s capability for psychological response to the biology that comes with anxious events has not yet been discovered. This absence of choice seems to hold significant importance. Thus, the absence of one’s psychological response to biochemistry may well be a more considerable contribution to the progression of the anxiety than the anxiety biology itself. What if, for example, the individual responded to the feeling of adrenalin with courage rather than fear or with confidence rather than doubt or with self-reliance rather than worry. The idea here is that while one might have less choice surrounding the forces of biochemistry one does seem to have choice surrounding individual responses to biological energies. You do have a choice, worry, doubt, and fear = Adrenalin or serenity, confidence, and courage = oxytocin. The body does after-all follow the mind.

When an anxiety disorder progresses to this fear of fear milestone the individual’s daily task is confined to securing ways to avoid a panic attack. In this stage the individual begins to normalize exaggerated adrenalin levels. This means that if the normal work-a-day adult is running daily adrenalin measures at 10-20 units, then the anxiety disordered individual’s new adrenalin normal is 75-125 units. If panic attack levels occur around125 units, this means that the anxiety disordered person is living moment to moment on an edge that is only a few units away from a panic attack. Stressors or demands for energy coming from the external universe place a constant pressure on the adrenalin levels. Individuals who already struggle with these exaggerated adrenalin levels are at risk for high level stressors and/or an accumulation of moderate level stressors to push them over the edge. These individuals may compensate by deliberately avoiding stressors seeking to withdraw and isolate. The overall goal for individuals who find themselves in this dilemma is to make their world smaller and less taxing.

What is known about the biological science of Anxiety?

Emotions are comprised of 3-dimensions including biology (biochemistry)-psychology (purpose-agenda)- mood (sensation-quality of experience). There are 3-primary emotions that utilize varying quantities of adrenalin including anger-anxiety-fear. Adrenalin or epinephrine sometimes called the fear chemical is released in designated quantities by the sympathetic nervous system. Fear situations require the highest measures of adrenalin, second comes anxiety and third is anger. The brain including both the conscious and the unconscious mind read events as they occur both in the internal mind and/or in the external universe. The sympathetic nervous system then prepares our body for the applicable level of emergency by releasing the required measure of adrenalin.

Fear situations require the highest measures of adrenalin due to the fact that a direct threat to our survival must be met with the fight-flight-freeze defense system. The psychology of fear is primarily governed by the animal brain and is driven by survival instincts. The quality of the fear mood is defined by the overwhelming sensation of high alert and alarm. All five senses go into overdrive while the frontal lobe, along with the ability to think and reason shuts down. This is true because the survival instinct cannot afford to be interrupted by thought. The animal brain must be in the driver’s seat as survival requires immediate action. The adrenalin recedes only when the threat has been or is perceived to have been removed. To pose a theoretical number just for the sake of clarification let’s say that the animal brain takes over when the adrenalin level reaches 125-units. Hear a sudden loud noise and instantaneously your sympathetic nervous system injects 125- units of adrenalin into your blood stream. This fear or startle reaction is instinctual.

Anxiety situations require the second highest level of adrenalin. The psychology   of anxiety primarily surrounds survival maintenance problems. The mind detects threats to our ability to maintain our survival in what we call an anxiety event. This means that survival is not the issue and therefore the adrenalin levels released are less than life threatening adrenalin release measures.

If we wake up with a start realizing that we are late for work our life is not in jeopardy. Being late for work however may well have an impact on our ability to maintain our survival. Survival maintenance threats produce mid-level measures of adrenalin that move us to solve the problem that is impacting our comfort, our means to provide, and/or our reward system.

What would happen if you were not alarmed about a survival maintenance problem? What if there were no anxiety and realizing you were late for work you rolled over and went back to sleep? This suggests that anxiety serves an important purpose by giving us energy and motivation to solve problems that are critical to our long-term survival.

The adrenalin measures that accompany anxiety recede only when the survival maintenance problem has been solved. This suggests that problem solving may even be more effective than medication when it comes to reducing the anxiety produced by survival maintenance issues. This problem solving is otherwise known as stress management. The mind reads the priority of the survival maintenance problem releasing higher measures of adrenalin for more critical problems and lower measures to problems that are less urgent. While the less urgent problems might be deferred the body still counts these deferrals. Thus, if deferrals accumulate so will adrenalin levels. When we worry rather than problem solve anxiety tends to accumulate at times plateauing. Anxiety plateaus lead us to normalize high anxiety.

To pose a metaphorical number just for the sake of clarification let’s say that the anxiety brought on by survival maintenance problems generates 75-120 units of adrenalin. This means that anxiety laden individuals who live in an atmosphere in which urgent problems persist and/or lower-level unsolved problems accumulate may be normalizing a lifestyle that borders on panic.

Anger situations tend to be less critical to survival as they surround the psychology of worth and respect and are less imminent regarding being a threat to our life or to the maintenance of our survival. If someone gives us the finger our life is not in jeopardy nor has our ability to maintain our survival suffered impact. It is true however that we have been marginalized and the measure of our worth has been assaulted. Initially anger events will produce adrenalin levels that are less than anxiety events. These levels may escalate quickly however when violent reprisals are considered. Violence compels the body to proceed directly to fear level adrenalin measures as the animal brain detects a direct and imminent threat to life. At this point the animal brain takes over as do our survival instincts.

The adrenalin measures that accompany anger recede only when the worth measures have been defended and restored. This is achieved most directly with self-respect and the minimization of the offender’s qualifications surrounding their authority to share information about your worth. They have no knowledge nor understanding about your authentic worth so why give their tactical comment any credence.

To pose a theoretical number just for the sake of clarification let’s say that the anger brought on by disrespect and direct assaults on our worth generates 25-70 units of adrenalin. This means that carrying the disrespect or holding grudges over time may lead to cumulative levels of adrenalin. The cumulative measures of adrenalin could subsequently normalize high adrenalin levels leading to chronic irritability, low frustration tolerance, and frequent anger outbursts.

How does the body reduce the adrenalin?

In contrast to the sympathetic nervous system which is the fuel/adrenalin injector, providing energy bursts to aid the defense from threats to survival, the parasympathetic nervous system is the brake to your fight or flight response. It controls your needs of “rest and digest” and “feed and breed”, plus states of deep relaxation called the Relaxation Response. The parasympathetic nervous system is designed to soothe and restore balance. The vagus nerve is the all-star of this operating mode, quickly calming your organs after superhuman status. The chemical in the body that effectively counteracts the adrenalin is oxytocin.

Sometimes called the Love Chemical oxytocin reduces adrenalin levels while at the same time increasing the drive to bond with others. The love chemical literally generates a craving to be close to another or others. This hormone not only builds a tolerance for stressors it also creates a feeling of empathy for others increasing both sensitivity and affection. This means that exercises like meditation, yoga, and mindfulness increase oxytocin levels that subsequently improve the individual’s ability to soothe oneself at will. Practicing these exercises could lead to successful self-soothing at any time, and in any situation, including those in which one’s survival is threatened. We see this calming effect most specifically in the Martial Arts, such as in the movies when the martial artist appears so calm in the midst of physical combat.