Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 6: The Cortex

The thinking part of the brain is a thick covering called the Cortex. It deals with social information: thinking about thinking and emotions, as well as thinking about what others are thinking and feeling.The following parts of the cortex are good to know about in relation to anxiety:

• The anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), the filter and amplifier of information
• The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the place where working memory is held
• The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the CEO where all information is ultimately received, analyzed, and responded to

The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus (ACG)



This area of the cortex organizes information. It gathers data from the limbic system and the hippocampus and puts it into a contex that your Prefrontal cortex can understand and analyze. 


"When the ACG does not have a good balance of neurotransmitters, it can get stuck on negative feelings and be unable to shift them forward, thereby making it less efficient at sending analysis back onto the amygdala. If your ACG gets stuck, qualities you may see and feel are worry and rumination on negative thoughts, oppositional behavior, or inflexibility about trying new options or responses to situations." -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

 

The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC)


This area commands the process called working memory, or short term storage. It holds pieces of information just long enough to complete tasks of everyday mental functioning. When this part of the cortex is working properly, people have good impulse control, making decisions based on information. 


When the neurotransmitters in the OFC are in balance, you feel optimistic and hopeful. This is important so that you can control your fears with optimistic, problem solving activity.

The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

This part of the brain is where all of the information from your body and other parts of your brain is ultimately received and responsive decisions are made based on that information. It creates solutions to problems. When the neurotransmitters in this area are out of balance, the thinking is impaired.

The most interesting part of this section of the book that I found is the following:

"Anxiety management techniques aim to control your anxious symptoms primarily through the left brain, using words, analysis, and decision making to control the rest of your brain and your body.Psychotherapy methods that activate other parts of the brain are certainly available, and neccesarily so, because difficult problems such as resolving long-standing trauma, changing the impact of childhood experiences, or altering dark moods such as despair, require different work than just anxiety management techniques. If your anxiety stems from a history of trauma, than you will likely need psychotherapy to to release the impact of that trauma. Your anxiety may be hard to diminish or it may repeatedly return if deeper therapeutic work is not done." -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

I hope you have all been learning as much as I have with this monthly challenge. Keep sharing on the forum! The November challenge will be announced on Sunday, along with a new discussion thread. I am really excited for it!

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 5: The Basal Ganglia
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 4: The Limbic System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!

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This post is information paraphrased from The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques which is my monthly challenge book.

Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 5: The Basal Ganglia

"A ganglia is a concentrated group of neurons. The basal ganglia (BG) are several ganglia that work together to induce motivation, create energy to meet goals, and even coordinate physical movement with the emotion. The basal ganglia are located under the cortex (covering) of the brain, where you do your thinking, and cover the limbic area. One part of the BG, called nucleus accumbens, is specialized to interpret pleasure when it receives the messenger dopamine. When you do something that stimulates dopamine and it flows through to this part, you feel good. This makes you want to repeat whatever you were doing that made you feel good. For this reason, the BG strongly affect motivation and energy.

A person with a good supply of dopamine in the BG will feel motivated and full of energy or high drive, but if the GABA is not working effectively, then the energy can get too high and result in tension. Additionally, even for no real reason but just out-of-the-blue because GABA" (a neurotransmitter responsible for slowing down activity in the brain so that you can stop brain cells from firing off messages) "is not working as it should, over excited activity in the neurons of the BG can trigger panic attacks. In the case of BG energy, some is good, a lot can give you drive but make you tense, and too much can flip over into panic." -The 10 Best- Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg.

"Increased basal ganglia activity is often a finding we have seen with anxiety disorders. When there is increased activity on the left side it is often associated with anxiety and irritability (expressed anxiety) and when there is increased activity on the right side there is often anxiety, social withdrawal and conflict avoidance. Increased activity in the temporal lobes has also been associated with anxiety. When there is also increased cingulate activity a person may have trouble with repetitive thoughts about his or her anxiety." -Amen Clinics

Picture is a brain scan of a 28 year old woman with chronic anxiety, conflict avoidance. Note the increased right basal ganglia activity.(the middle part of the picture where it is red). 

Pretty soon it will be time for our November Challenge! Stay tuned to find out what it will be!

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Tah Dah! HealthyPlace TV Show On Demand!

Ok well I did the tv show at healthyplace.com and I think overall it went pretty well. I really hate seeing me on camera so it was a bit torturous to watch. Plus I am not a fan of the camera angle or the way I am talking- it doesn't look like me. But I know I am critical. Anyway, if you missed it here it is.

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Update: Time change

Sorry, I was wrong about the time for the show tonight. It will be airing at 7:30 CST, not 7:00. If you miss it don't worry, I'll post the show afterwards.

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I am going to be on TV online!!!

For those that are interested, I am going to be on a live tv show that airs on the internet at http://www.healthyplace.com/. You can check out the preview here. The show airs tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th at 7pm CST. The topic is living with Social Anxiety Disorder. And with it being live, this may be a chance for you to see me anxious in real life! Talk about a hundred reasons to be nervous about this! But I want to get the word out and help those who are struggling so I'll do it.


Wish me luck!!!

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 4: The Limbic System

The Limbic System is all about forming emotions and memories. Various structures make up this system and they are located in the center of the brain. The names of the parts of the limbic system are:

• Thalamus
• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala

Let's take a closer look at each one.

Thalamus- The thalamus receives information outside of your body through your senses and then passes that information onto different parts of the brain, such as your cortex or your amydgala so that they can take action on it.

Hypothalamus- The hypothalamus receives information inside of your body to and from your organs. It starts your stress response by telling your adrenal glands that you are under stress so your glands can get you the energy you need. If your hypothalamus has too many neurons that respond to stress, you may be the type of person that overreacts emotionally and physically to normal, not so big stresses.

Hippocampus- The hippocampus records details, but just facts and data. No emotion is involved. It sends this data to your cortex to be processed.

Amygdala- The amygdala registers tone and intensity of emotions and notifies your brain, specifically the hypothalamus, immediately if it should prepare for problems. It registers all emotions, but prefers to notice the scary threatening ones. It's like a smoke detector for your body and brain. It doesn't respond to the yummy lasagna baking in the oven, but if the lasagna starts to burn than it will sound the alarm! You don't have to be alert to joys in order to survive, but if you are threatened, you want your amygdala working to keep you alive. Once your amygdala learns what is dangerous, it tries to protect you from whatever scared you in the future. This is how triggers are born. And anytime you avoid your fears, it lets your amygdala know that its right and that it is a dangerous thing, which makes the trigger worse. 

Interesting stuff, huh! Something I have found that is really helpful for me- I have read over the information from my book several times, but I find that it really doesn't sink in until I have to explain it in my own words when creating these posts. So, find a good friend or even a journal, and try to explain these things to them. You really have to understand it in order to repeat it.

What have you been learning about? I have LOVED the comments left on the forum for this challenge.

Parts of this post were paraphrased from The 10 Best- Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg.

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!
  

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Doctor D's Anxiety Management Tips

So, last post I discussed Anxiety Disorder from the perspective of natural survival instincts.  Understanding that you are working with a natural reflex empowers you to find strategies that weaken this reflex until it is under your control. 

I'm going to go over several Anxiety management strategies.  All the well-educated readers of “Reality of Anxiety” probably have already heard these tips, but I am going to focus on how to understand their effectiveness in light of the anxiety reflex.

As I mentioned before the Anxiety reflex is a triggering of the “fight or flight” response that is designed to protect you from a threat to your life.  Unfortunately it often gets triggered when our lives aren't in danger and the anxiety reaction does us more harm than good.

When the subconscious mind triggers the anxiety alarm, “Watch out, someone or something is trying to kill you!”  You immediately begin to search for evidence that the threat is real.  If your brain senses signs of danger then the “fight or flight” response is turned up.  If no danger is found or after the threat is gone your brain is supposed to turn off the reflex.  Unfortunately, when you have Anxiety disorder your “off switch” is harder to get at.

Many of the best Anxiety Management Tips tell your brain it's time to hit the off switch:

Deep breathing:  Your brain pays careful attention to the body.  When the body acts like it is in danger the brain assumes their must be danger.  This can become a vicious cycle such as in a panic attack.  The good news is that you can use this to your advantage.  You conscious brain can take control of breathing.  By forcing yourself to take slow deep breaths you are sending a message to your unconscious brain that there is no real danger. 

Calm People:  Your brain is searching for signs of danger when you are anxious.  When other people respond to your anxiety by becoming anxious themselves your brain takes their behavior ask proof that there must be a real threat.  This is why high-strung families and friends can sometimes worsen your anxiety.  If all you see are unworried people who speak calmly then your subconscious gets the message that there isn't a threat to your safety.  So tell people to try to stay mellow for you or hang out with calm people when you are anxious.

Positive Words:  I know is seems foolish to keep repeating to yourself, “I feel good.  I feel great.”  But your subconscious is listening.  Hearing soothing words even from your own mouth confirms that that the anxiety reflex was a false alarm.  Once again this is a way that you can use your conscious mind to tell your unconscious mind to turn off the stress response.

Exercise:  This technique works because it give the subconscious brain exactly what it is looking for.  Your brain wants to fight or run to get away from danger.  If you exercise to get yourself sweating and out of breath you brain assumes that the danger must be gone.  Exercise is like a reset button for your stress.  Your body relaxes and your blood pressure drops after aerobic exercise. 

Sometime people will need medicines that adjust brain chemistry to dampen the anxiety response, but often the best ways of combating this natural instinct are the natural ways that our own bodies can turn off the reaction.  Any Anxiety suffer probably knows a lot more techniques than these I mentioned. 

I encourage my patients to think about how the reflex works and how anxiety control techniques are helping their reflex realize there is no danger.  I have found that this perspective really helps people feel they have control over their anxiety.


-Doctor D (http://askanmd.blogspot.com/)


Doctor D is not an expert on Anxiety Disorder or even a psychiatrist.  He is a regular doctor who blogs at Ask An MD.  Doctor D has cared for lots of patients with anxiety while living a high stress life, so he has given a lot of thought to Anxiety.  Most of his experience is anecdotal from years of practicing medicine.  For specific treatments or advice about your own anxiety be sure to talk to your doctor.

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Stress and Survival Instincts

I am so excited to share with you the thoughts of Doctor D- a practicing MD who wants to help those looking for answers to their medical questions. He wants to participate in this month's challenge by sharing with us in two posts what he knows about anxiety, specifically what we have been learning about with the Stress Response System.


"Understanding human stress instincts can be very empowering for someone with an Anxiety Disorder.
The trouble with human instincts is that they aren't there to be understood but obeyed unquestioningly.  Understanding your instincts, however, takes away their mysterious power and makes them a function of your brain and body that you can comprehend and counterbalance.

The human stress response is an amazing system designed to keep you alive when threatened with death.  The reason you inherited such a powerful stress response is that it has worked, keeping generations of your ancestors alive.

Fortunately, most of us live in an environment in which real threats to our life and limb are very rare or non-existent.  For your hunter-gather ancestors violence and danger may have been around every corner, but you do your hunting and gathering at the local grocery with laws in place and police nearby to stop most violence.   So why are the safest human beings in history always so stressed?

Many of us have trouble turning off our instincts.  Survival reflexes often kick in when we don't need them.  Your ancestors had brief periods of terror when they may have needed to “fight or flee” to survive.  These stressful periods in their lives usually ended quickly, and the body was able to recharge within a low-stress state.

The problem with modern stresses is while they may never kill you—they also never go away.  The number one thing people tell Doctor D they stress about is their finances.  Almost nobody in the US dies from being poor, but the pressures of monthly bills never go away.  The modern world uses deadlines and debt to keep us motivated to work, which keeps us constantly stressed.  A mortgage lasts 30 years!  Stressing for that long wrecks havoc on the body. 

In the short run stress reactions and “fight or flight” reflexes do wonders for a body in danger.  The immune and digestive systems slow to allow the muscles to get the greater share of the body's power.  We increase fat stores and blood sugar to have instant energy ready. We become more sensitive to pain so we can detect threats more quickly.  We sleep poorly so we are constantly on alert.  The heart beats faster; the blood pressure is higher.  Our minds are constantly scanning our environment for threats, keeping us from focusing deeply on any one thing.  Trust me, if you are going into battle tomorrow this exactly how you want your body to behave!   But the body and brain cannot indefinitely sustain this state.  If it lasts too long your physical and emotional health can be significantly damaged.

People with Anxiety Disorders have inherited an extra helping of these survival reflexes.  The unending stress of modern life are constantly triggering these powerful, primitive reflexes.   Our daily problems need thoughtful problem solving—something that the “fight or flight” response gets in the way of.  The very instinct that is there to keep you alive makes you sick and keeps you from solving your problems.

So the important thing to understand about Anxiety is that it is a natural and healthy response.  Understanding that that what you feel in anxiety is a natural reaction helps you have a sense of control.  Realizing that it follows certain rules helps you respond to stress reactions thoughtfully.  Seeing that the “fight or flight” response is being triggered unnecessarily helps you know how to put it aside for when you really need it. 

Doctor D isn't saying that understanding Stress instincts will make all Anxiety problems go away, but knowledge (such as the sort you are getting in the October Education Challenge) gives perspective and power that can make you own the Anxiety, so it doesn't own you."

Disclaimer:
Doctor D is not an expert on Anxiety Disorder or even a psychiatrist.  He is a regular doctor who blogs at Ask An MD.  Doctor D has cared for lots of patients with anxiety while living a high stress life, so he has given a lot of thought to Anxiety.  Most of his experience is anecdotal from years of practicing medicine.  For specific treatments or advice about your own anxiety be sure to talk to your doctor.

Thanks Doctor D!

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 3: The Stress Response System

(What I am sharing is paraphrasing from The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques which is my monthly challenge book, as well as other sites from the Internet.)

The Stress Response System is a system to get you energy when you need it. 

As mentioned in the last post, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) tells your organs to get busy and respond to a demand for action, such as extra heart activity and respiration so your muscles can get more energy when climbing a flight of stairs for example. 

In order to have the energy you need for this to happen, you need some chemical assistance from hormones. Adrenalin and Cortisol are two hormones needed for stress and they travel through the bloodstream. This makes the body release glucose and fat (or stores of fuel) that your muscles will use while burning energy when having to work hard.

At Speaking of Faith they have this to say about Coritsol,

"Cortisol is one of nature's most powerful anti-inflammatory drugs. In "The Mind-Body Interaction in Disease," Sternberg describes this hormone and the role it plays in managing stress in the body: "Cortisol is a steroid hormone that increases the rate and strength of heart contractions, sensitizes blood vessels to the actions of norepinephrine (an adrenalinelike hormone) and affects many metabolic functions — actions that help the body meet a stressful situation. In addition, cortisol is a potent immunoregulator and anti-inflammatory agent. It plays a crucial role in preventing the immune system from overreacting to injuries and damaging tissues. Furthermore, cortisol inhibits the release of CRH by the hypothalamus — which keeps this component of the stress response under control. Thus, CRH and cortisol directly link the body's brain-regulated stress response and its immune response."

The stress response can work for any length of time. Small little releases of energy or short powerful bursts of energy or long extended periods of stress response when you are in an emotional situation or under the burden of high expectations. 

"The stress response is the body's natural defence mechanism for dealing with danger. If activated for short periods of time the stress response will not cause the individual undue harm. However, if it is activated and sustained over long periods of time then both psychological and physical damage is likely to be experienced by the individual."

In our case, we can become very anxious if we let ourselves stay stressed for too long.

Have you joined the monthly challenge yet? If so, tell me all about what you are reading and what you are learning about on the discussion forum! If not, there's still plenty of time to get started.

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System
  
• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!

 

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 2: The Nervous System

I am finding a lot of empowerment in learning all of this information. This morning I was really nervous about my busy scheduled day that I had planned and I could feel the anxiety rising. I took some deep breaths and told myself that I am just sending out a lot of stressful messages when it doesn't have to be. So I kept telling myself that its going to be okay, that it isn't as stressful and scary as I think its going to be and its just my brain overreacting, and that really helped to calm me down! 

Going along with the monthly challenge of getting educated, I want to continue sharing what I have been learning from my book of choice, (so please note everything I am mentioning is paraphrasing from it) or is taken from Wikipedia.  

The next few posts in this series will be dedicated to the different structures of the brain and how they relate to anxiety. Your brain has many structures within it that can work together in systems to get a task done. Lets start with the first one, the Nervous System. 

As I quickly noted in Part 1 of Anxiety and Our Brains, neurotransmitters are messengers that are received in different parts of the brain, and where they are received affects the message. I love the example from the book. This concept is explained as the scenario of a person sending an email expressing their love for a coworker. If the message is sent to that co worker, he or she may be thrilled. However, if that same message is accidentally sent to the boss, that boss is going to be upset because he is worrying about what his employees are doing on company time. Same message, different receivers, different outcomes. 

The nervous system as defined by Wikipedia, "The nervous system is a network of specialized cells that communicate information about an organism's surroundings and itself."

Or in other words, the nerves carry messages to and from your organs and then tell your brain how your body is doing.

It has nerves that get your organs going and nerves that calm down the activity in your organs. It encompasses all of the nerves that run through the body and connect to the spinal cord and the brain.

3 Major Divisions of Nerve Activity that are Related to Anxiety:

• The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)- It's main function is to connect the Central Nervous System to the brain and organs, however it also carries messages to and from the skin. For example, this is the system that makes you blush.
• The sympathetic nervous system (SNS)- "responds to impending danger or stress, and is responsible for the increase of one's heartbeat and blood pressure, among other physiological changes, along with the sense of excitement one feels due to the increase of adrenaline in the system."
  
• The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS)- "is evident when a person is resting and feels relaxed, and is responsible for such things as the constriction of the pupil, the slowing of the heart, the dilation of the blood vessels..." This system takes over when you need to calm down.

You can initiate the activity of the PNS by breathing faster and you can initiate action in the PSNS by breathing more slowly and deeply.

The nervous system is automatic and operates without your control, but you can take it over on purpose to help calm yourself down when needed.  

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Anxiety and Our Brains!

Related Posts:

• Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters
• Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!

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*Animated picture at top of page is an animated gif of MRI images of a human head* 

Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 1: Neurons and Neurotransmitters

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am fascinated by everything I have been learning about so far. It's relieving to understand why I am the way that I am, and why I am taking the medication I am and how it is helping me. There is so much that I am learning that I want to share with you so I thought I would break it down into a series for easier reading. I think it will help to read through and then when you are done with the whole series, to go back and reread it a second time if you are confused.


(What I am sharing is paraphrasing from The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques which is my monthly challenge book, as well as an article on the internet called Your Nervous System at Work.)


Even though the brain is so complex that we could never learn all of it in our lifetimes, neuroscience researchers have learned enough in recent years that it is possible to describe how some parts of the brain contribute to feelings of anxiety.


The average brain is made up of 100 billion neurons or brain cells. These neurons have to communicate with each other to create thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, as well as coordinate senses such as sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch with our muscles and bodies. 

an electron microscope photograph of a brain neuron from Universitäre Psychiatrische Dienste Bern

They communicate with each other by sending messengers back and forth in the space between neurons or brain cells called the synapse. Neurons communicate at synapses through the use of neurotransmitters. These messengers of the brain are chemicals sent between neurons each carrying different messages.

One thing to note: The same message can be interpreted differently depending on which part of the brain is receiving it.

 

A Few Types of Neurotransmitters that Affect Anxiety:

• Serotonin is an example of a neurotransmitter involved with the regulation of multiple systems including mood (helping you not be too negative), appetite and sleep (keeps the patterns stable), temperature, pain sensation, impulse control. If your serotonin levels are off balance you can have all sorts of problems.
  
• Dopamine- in one part of your brain dopamine can send the message of feeling really good. But if received in the thinking part of your brain it helps you to pay attention. This neurotransmitter helps to motivate you to achieve your goals and face your fears.
• Norepinephrine-  keeps you mentally alert and energetic. Helps you receive energy in emergency situations. If you have too many of these neurotransmitters, you will feel jittery, wired, or too tense.

Possible Problems with this Process that Can Contribute to Anxiety:

• There needs to be enough neurotransmitters available to get the messages across from one neuron to another. If your body isn't producing enough neurotransmitters, then the message isn't getting sent. This is where medication could help you increase those numbers.
• Another scenario could be that you have enough neurotransmitters but they are having a hard time being received by the other neuron. If those messages are "Calm down" or "feel good" you may not be able to receive them.
  
• Or perhaps you have too many messages being sent. If you have too many neurotransmitters, you may tend to make a big deal out of little things. It will feel like a big deal because your brain is sending too many messages that says "This is stressful!"  

The functions of your brain all need to be working smoothly for messages to be clearly received and sent.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Anxiety and Our Brains.

Don't forget to join the monthly challenge! Tell us all about it on the forum.

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Top of the Top!

First off I want to say that I got my book today in the mail and I can't wait to start!

I'm very pleased that the Reality of Anxiety was handpicked to be featured on the Top Psych new Blog links. Here is what they have to say:

"...AlleyDog.com - a popular psychology-specific websites for students and teachers launched more than 10 years ago. We recently launched a new feature called Top Psych that aggregates the best psychology-related blogs, news, and stories from around the web. It's similar to Alltop, but focused 100% on psychology.

Top Psych does not list every blog, only the ones we believe provide high quality information and perspectives. In other words, we hand pick the blogs and sites for Top Psych, and we're quite selective.

"I'm pleased to let you know that your blog was selected as one of the very best and is included on Top Psych. Please visit http://www.alleydog.com and click on the "Psychology News & Blogs" links to see your blog (located in the Mental Health: Anxiety section). Please keep in mind that we're just launching this new feature, so there are still some bugs, some areas that have just a few blogs, and some kinks to work out…but we're off to a great start."

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Monthly Challenge: October 2009- Let's Get Educated!

Welcome to the very first Reality of Anxiety monthly challenge!

With this being our first challenge, it only seems right to start at the beginning. Its hard to read the word "cat" if you don't know what the letter "c" is. And its hard to fix our anxiety if we don't really understand what it is and what our brains are doing. Its not necessary to know this information to improve your anxiety, but as Margaret Wehrenberg says in her book The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques, "It will be easier to exert the effort to manage anxiety, even when it seems hard to do, if you know you are changing your brain every time you control the symptoms. You automatically gain a certain measure of control over anxiety when you say to yourself, 'This is my brain doing this. It is not me, and I can control it.'"
Another great reason to take an interest in learning more:

“Lifelong learning is essential to the vitality of the human mind, body, and soul. It enhances self-worth and self-actuation. Lifelong learning is invigorating mentally and is a great defense against aging, depression, and self-doubt” -Elder Robert D. Hales

So let's get educated about these crazy brains of ours!

Challenge: Find and read a book or article that explains how our brains work in relation to anxiety. It doesn't have to be the subject of the entire book but at least some portion of it should talk about how the brain correlates with anxiety.

If you don't want to purchase a book, I usually go to my local library because its free and these days its all about pinching pennies right? You'll be amazed at all of the resources you can find there. You can also find articles online. Want some book suggestions?

• I am going to read the book I mentioned above, The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques, by Margaret Wehrenberg, because it looks like it has valuable content, and seems like an easy read without a bunch hard to understand technical lingo. The first 34 pages are related to understanding your brain and anxiety. 
• A reader named Brian once recommended the book by the same author, The Anxious Brain by Wehrenberg. He said, "This book has changed my life. It's written for clinicians but is so readable and gives you a wonderful explanation of why your brain will not stop worrying until it is trained to do so. The systems in your brain that are designed to be alert for potential threats are simply switched on all the time. It also removes much of the shame and guilt for us about the fact that we think we should be able to control our thoughts and stop our anxiety by sheer will."
• If you weren't the lucky winner of the giveaway you should also check out The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne. Out of all of these suggestions this is the only one that I have already read and can verify is worth your time and money.
  
• A final book a reader told me to check out is "Extinguishing Anxiety: whole brain strategies to relieve fear and stress" (2009) which discusses the role of the amygdala in the formation of emotional memories and extinction.  It gives an in-depth discussion of CBT and the use of medications in treating anxiety. www.extinguishinganxiety.com

A new Category has been posted on the forum titled "Monthly Challenges" with a forum started "October 2009: Lets Get Educated! where you can share the knowledge you are learning. Let us know which book is changing your life, or which one not to waste our time on. 


Good Luck! Let me know what book or article you are reading and what you are learning!

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