How to "Change the Channel" & Rewire Your Anxious Brain
I’ve been listening to a workshop presented by Catherine Pittman Ph.D., on the operation of the Amygdala and the Cortex and how this relates to anxiety. She’s written a book called Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry. Good stuff! Here’s what I have so far:
The Amygdala is a set of two almond shaped (amygdala is almond in Greek) portions of the brain that are among the oldest. That is- animals like rats and snakes and lizards have this in their brains and are largely governed by it.
The Cortex is the part of the brain that allows us to analyze with critical thought. Humans have a lot of this, rats have much less.
The Amygdala is able to see all stimulus coming in from all or our sense organs before the Cortex sees. The Amygdala decides if there are threats, or if there is safety.
So there’s an envelope on the table.
Our eyes see it, our Amygdala sees it and determines it’s not a threat- it’s just an envelope.
There’s a fire in the kitchen.
Our eyes see it and our Amygdala determines that it’s a threat and commands us to run out of the house. The Amygdala fires before any thoughts can arise from the Cortex. This is the home of the “fight, flight or freeze” response. It creates extremely strong, emotional impulses in reaction to unsafe situations. The Amygdala reacts first. If there is a danger identified by the Amygdala, the Cortex doesn’t get a good chance to analyze it. It’s go time. Your body is moving long before your cortex sends the conscious thought- “Run!!!” Or, if you’ve ever touched a hot pot and dropped it before you actually “felt” the pain of the burn- that’s the Amygdala doing it’s thing. You were less burned because it read the damage signals coming from your hand before your Cortex, and commanded your muscles to release the hot pan, to mitigate the damage as quickly as possible. It’s lightning fast and it has access to all of the systems of the body.
But, the Amygdala isn’t just watching the outside world, it’s also checking out the Cortex.
The Amygdala sees all. It watches the Cortex like a television screen. If we have a scary thought in the Cortex, the Amygdala starts to go into action. So continuing to promote scary, anxious thoughts is a way to keep the Amygdala activated.
Back to the envelope on the table… the envelope is from an IRS lawyer. The Cortex sees this lawyer and fires up some fearful conclusions- “I’m getting sued!” “I’m in trouble!”. These thoughts are accompanied by scenes from a prison movie. The Amygdala sees this movie and starts to rev up. The Cortex is telling the Amygdala this is a threat. The body surges with adrenaline and cortisol and other chemicals and hormones, and…. It’s junk mail. Whew! It takes a while for the ingredients of the fight, flight or freeze cocktail to be reabsorbed, but they do get reabsorbed.
This is one of the main ways our thoughts connect to our emotions. We can have some control over our Cortex and the movies that are being played for the Amygdala. This is a critical point for Anxiety. If we allow ourselves to “watch” the anxiety “channels” in our Cortex all the time, our Amygdala will be in a regular state of activation. This means our bodies will be often reacting to fear and deciding whether or not to run away, fight, or freeze. We can replace anxious thoughts. We can change the “channel” that is playing for our Amygdala.
I currently trying to screen a short film about snuggly bunnies rather than Saw 3: The Slicing Game. It doesn’t always work, but it’s a practice worth trying.
Catherine Pittman, Ph.D has written and spoken a lot on neurobiology and anxiety. She’s an excellent teacher and therapist. Also a graduate from one of my favorite colleges, Central Michigan University- Fire Up Chips!
Pittman continues her workshop with a description of adaptive worry. Worry has played a big part in our survival as a species. It’s the ability to imagine negative outcomes. That’s not the primarily effective part though. It’s also a call to create a plan for adaptive change. The second part is the part that has helped us survive. If we don’t respond to our worry with a plan for change, we’re just running a scary TV show over and over on our Cortex which then amps up our Amygdala (see above!).
So listen to your worry, and come up with a plan, and execute the plan. And don’t forget to “change the channel” when you notice yourself spending too much time on scary thoughts.
