Anxiety Symptoms, Types, Causes and Treatments

What Happens When Anxious People Put Their Feelings Into Words (M)

A surprisingly simple psychological technique reduces anxiety — but most people never think to try it.

A surprisingly simple psychological technique reduces anxiety -- but most people never think to try it.

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The Reason Some People Get More Anxious When They Try To Relax

Relaxing is a challenge for people with this trait.

People who have anxious personality traits can find it hard to relax.

Unfortunately, relaxation exercises, including meditation, can paradoxically make some people more anxious, research finds.

Research suggests that this ‘relaxation-induced anxiety’ may occur because some people intentionally make themselves anxious.

People with anxiety often worry that relaxing will leave them vulnerable to something bad happening.

As a form of protection, they may deliberately keep themselves anxious.

Professor Michelle Newman, study co-author, explained:

“The theory revolves around the idea that people may make themselves anxious intentionally as a way to avoid the letdown they might get if something bad were to happen.

This isn’t actually helpful and just makes you more miserable.

But, because most of the things we worry about don’t end up happening, what’s reinforced in the brain is, ‘I worried and it didn’t happen so I should continue worrying.'”

As a result, relaxation treatments can sometimes increase anxiety rather than reduce it.

Mr Hanjoo Kim, the study’s first author, said:

“People who are more vulnerable to relaxation-induced anxiety are often the ones with anxiety disorders who may need relaxation more than others.

And of course, these relaxation techniques were meant to help, not make someone more anxious.

Our findings will hopefully serve as a cornerstone for providing better care for these populations.”

The study included 96 people, including one-third with an anxiety disorder, one-third with depression and the rest as controls.

The results showed that people with anxiety, and to a lesser extent those with depression, were more sensitive to shifts in their emotional state.

They were also more likely to become anxious when trying to relax.

Professor Newman explained:

“People may be staying anxious to prevent a large shift in anxiety, but it’s actually healthier to let yourself experience those shifts.

The more you do it, the more you realize you can do it and it’s better to allow yourself to be relaxed at times.

Mindfulness training and other interventions can help people let go and live in the moment.”

The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (Kim & Newman, 2019).

The Most Reassuring Way To Explain Anxiety To Patients, According To 171 Experts (M)

Clinicians were asked how anxiety should be explained to patients to improve treatment.

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The Best Treatment For Frightening Memories

The off-switch for fear: how the brain overrides our worst anxieties.

Exposing people to their fears is one of the best treatments for anxiety-related disorders.

By confronting these fears, patients can build positive experiences that actively override the original trauma.

Now, scientists have discovered that the brain cells that suppress fearful memories are located in the hippocampus.

As a critical hub for memory, the hippocampus contextualises our traumas, mapping out exactly how and where a scary event took place.

The hippocampus helps to contextualise a fearful memory, reminding us how and where it happened.

Treatments can create positive memories to rival the existing fearful ones — psychologists call these ‘extinction memories’.

Dr Michael Drew, study co-author, said:

“Extinction does not erase the original fear memory but instead creates a new memory that inhibits or competes with the original fear.

Our paper demonstrates that the hippocampus generates memory traces of both fear and extinction, and competition between these hippocampal traces determines whether fear is expressed or suppressed.”

Although extinction memories can be effective, the older fearful memories may return without warning.

Dr Drew said:

“There is frequently a relapse of the original fear, but we knew very little about the mechanisms.

These kinds of studies can help us understand the potential cause of disorders, like anxiety and PTSD, and they can also help us understand potential treatments.”

To map this process, neuroscientists conditioned mice to associate a specific environment with a mild, harmless shock.

This fearful memory was then turned on and off by neuroscientists using a technique called optogenetics — the use of light to control cells in living tissue.

The results showed that the extinction neurons were located in the hippocampus, a structure that is vital for memory.

Dr Drew explained:

“Artificially suppressing these so-called extinction neurons causes fear to relapse, whereas stimulating them prevents fear relapse.

These experiments reveal potential avenues for suppressing maladaptive fear and preventing relapse”

The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Lacagnina et al., 2019).

The Beautiful Scent That Quickly Reduces Anxiety

The scent also has practically no side-effects in comparison to drugs like benzodiazepines and SSRI antidepressants.

The smell of lavender reduces anxiety, research confirms.

Lavender also has practically no side-effects in comparison to drugs like benzodiazepines and SSRI antidepressants.

Benzodiazepines, in particular, can cause headache, dizziness and an effect like being drunk.

Lavender, meanwhile, has a relatively quick relaxing influence and no other side-effects.

Dr Hideki Kashiwadani, study co-author, said:

“In folk medicine, it has long been believed that odorous compounds derived from plant extracts can relieve anxiety.”

The researchers tested linalool, which is a compound in lavender that has the relaxing effect.

Dr Kashiwadani explained:

“We observed the behavior of mice exposed to linalool vapor, to determine its anxiolytic [calming] effects.

As in previous studies, we found that linalool odor has an anxiolytic effect in normal mice.

Notably, this did not impair their movement.”

Lavender, though, must be smelt not absorbed into the lungs, to have its calming effect, the mouse study has found.

Mice that could not smell, though, were not relaxed by the linalool.

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (Harada et al., 2018).

A Subtle Sound Added To Music Calms Anxiety Within 24 Minutes (M)

The right mix of music and sound patterns help quiet anxious thoughts and feelings.

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This Common Teenage Behaviour May Rewire The Brain For Anxiety

The drink is linked to 40 percent fewer neuronal connections in the emotional centre of the brain.

Binge drinking alcohol early in life is linked to developing anxiety later on.

The effects may be permanent, even if alcohol is given up after adolescence.

A previous study has also shown that very shy people can become highly anxious the day after drinking alcohol.

Dubbed ‘hangxiety’, the condition combines a hangover with heightened anxiety.

This rat study, however, found that alcohol reduced the number of neuronal connections in the amygdala, a brain region important for emotion.

Professor Subhash Pandey, study co-author, explained:

“Binge drinking early in life modifies the brain and changes connectivity in the brain, especially in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional regulation and anxiety, in ways we don’t totally understand yet.

But what we do know is that epigenetic changes are lasting, and increase susceptibility to psychological issues later in life, even if drinking that took place early in life is stopped.”

The conclusions come from a study of adolescent rats who were fed alcohol in a simulation of human binge drinking.

The results showed that the rats became more anxious later in life, even when they stopped binge drinking after adolescence.

They also had lower levels of an important protein in their amygdala.

The protein, called ‘Arc’, is critical to the formation of neuronal connections in the brain.

Rats with lower levels of Arc had 40 percent fewer neuronal connections in the amygdala.

Professor Pandey explained that alcohol has epigenetic effects; these are changes to gene expression, rather than the genetic code itself:

“We believe that the decrease in Arc levels is caused by epigenetic changes that alter the expression of Arc, and an enhancer RNA, which modifies the expression of Arc.

These changes are caused by adolescent alcohol exposure.”

Professor Pandey continued:

“Exposure to alcohol causes epigenetic reprogramming to occur, leading to molecular changes in the amygdala, which are long-lasting, even in the absence of more alcohol.

If the amygdala has deficits in its wiring or connectivity, and these modifications are long-lasting, the individual is at risk for psychological issues based on difficulties in regulating emotions, such as anxiety or depression and the development of alcohol use disorder later in life.”