What is Anxiety?

Your heart is hammering. Your stomach is turning. You can’t think straight and any thoughts you do have are far from positive.

Thoughts like:

What if I fail? What happens if I go and no one likes me? What if I never get better?

A whirlwind of worries nearly knocks you off your feet, how is it possible to become this overwhelmed by fears over events that haven’t even happened yet?

This is anxiety. The human’s disruptive and rather temperamental relationship with the unknown. When you can’t safely predict what is around the corner your mind tries to fill in the gaps. And an anxious mind will present to you far scarier scenarios than what is the truth.

So why on earth do we have anxiety if it is so unhelpful? Well, funny enough, anxiety is a much-needed biological response… really! Hear me out!

Let us rewind 2.5 million years ago, to prehistoric times, when we were primitive humans wandering in the wilderness. Sure, back then, there were no social gatherings, job interviews or parking tickets to worry about, but cavemen and women faced some pretty life-threatening obstacles that undoubtedly wasn’t good for the nervous system.

Say one caveperson strayed too far from the safety of their tribe. They spot, from the undergrowth, two fierce narrowing eyes. It’s a sabretooth tiger getting ready to pounce!

So, now it’s time for your amygdala to kick in.

Your what?

Your amygdala, part of your brain that plays a crucial role in processing emotions, particularly pleasure and fear.

The amygdala is tremendously helpful right now, as it triggers your survival response, this is called fight or flight, which is hopefully going to save you from being the sabretooth’s next dinner.

So, what has this got to do with anxiety? Well, when the amygdala is overstimulated, anxiety will outweigh the logical parts of the brain and cause panic.

Here is where the chain reaction begins. The amygdala sends a signal to the hypothalamus, which activates the pituitary glands, which in turns activates the adrenal gland. Are you keeping up with me?

The adrenal gland powers the body with adrenaline, increasing your blood pressure and heart rate. Not only that but the amount of sugar in your blood shoots up and blood flow is sent to power up your muscles, providing you with the much-needed energy to get set to sprint out of danger.

With your blood flow being redirected other areas of the body become compromised. The digestion tract becomes impaired, meaning a loss of appetite, which also affects our saliva glands, giving us a dry mouth. The brain, in its heightened state, is now being emotionally regulated, with logic taking the back seat. Increased body heat and nerves sensitivity activates the sweat glands, leading to perspiration. These symptoms might sound familiar as they are all side effects of anxiety, our body’s response to pressure or stress.

So our caveperson may be feeling hot, flustered and understandably panicked, but anxiety has actually given their body the kickstart it needs to jump into action and scarper, where they will live to see another day.

In our next article we look how, back to modern day, how anxiety still serves a purpose and how we can regain control over anxiety using a very simple yet underestimated tool.