Anxiety Of the Mind Is a State of Alarm In the Body
Chronic anxiety that manifests in the form of physiological stress that causes disruption to your daily functioning is usually from experiences or trauma that were not properly integrated, meaning-we weren’t taught how to understand, resolve, and process these experiences by parents or caregivers in early childhood. Anxiety is a physiological state of alarm that is “stuck” in our body. It increases our sensitivity to fear and the unknown. Understanding how to resolve and process anxiety is a feeling process more than a thinking solution. Psychotherapy and medication can only help provide tools to manage anxiety versus healing the state of alarm that is unresolved or stuck in our body. We don’t “fix” anxiety through a process of managing our thinking but rather a process of feeling.
Most anxiety and clinical mental illness starts in childhood. 80% of our brain is developed by the time we are 5. Different types of stress or trauma in childhood can manifest as a dysfunctional alarm system in adulthood. Understanding the root causes of anxiety from childhood allows us to identify where the state of alarm began. Once we can identify the alarm, we can then appropriately heal and process anxiety in the body. When I initially meet clients who are seeking support for anxiety, one of the first questions I ask is, what does anxiety mean and feel like to you? Often clients will describe the thinking process of anxiety for example debilitating avoidance of being in public places. The avoidance is the behavior that “protects” the mind from a perceived threat, the thinking is that if I avoid this action, then I will be safe. The feeling is the state of alarm that is triggered in the body by our avoidance of the perceived fear or threat.
How does anxiety express itself?
Anxiety expresses itself through the sympathetic nervous system. The amygdala recognizes perceived threats in our internal or external environment that are triggered by a release of cortisol. The Amygdala has a direct pathway to our brainstem which controls our physiological response to threats. If you have ever felt your blood pressure, heart rate or respiration increase, these are physiological responses to taking place in response to the threat. At the same time your body is “feeling” the alarm your left hemisphere is trying to compute the context and we often start “stacking” worries. Sometimes our attempt to understand the alarm creates more worry, which increases the feeling of the alarm system leading to a dysfunctional cycle that reinforces our physiological response to fear.
How do we heal anxiety in the body?
1.) Turn towards the alarm. For high energy people we often try to “outrun” and “outwork” the alarm. We don’t want to feel the feeling, so we sublimate the anxiety and find a way to channel the negative energy in a way thats functional. Outworking your alarm system won’t heal it-it reinforces it. Neuroscience tells us that anxiety is deeply rooted in feeling separate from our parents or a parental mismatch in childhood. Feeling separate from your parents or a parental mismatch creates feelings of loneliness, fear, and a lack of belonging. Identifying where you feel the alarm system in your body and caring for that specific physiological need is the first step in healing your anxiety and alarm system. The alarm system does not ALWAYS originate in childhood. Significant changes in life circumstances, trauma, and transitions can also cause disruptions to our internal regulation.
2.) Somatic touch. When your alarm system goes off, identify a safe or neutral space in your body. This could look like putting your hand over your heart, tapping your knees, squeezing your thighs. The goal is to train your unconscious mind that the physiological pain you feel in your body right now is not all of you and you have control of the way you feel. Your amygdala doesn’t have a sense of time. So, when your body is triggered by an alarm, we often respond as if it were the first time our body is experiencing the alarm/worry cycle. We must train the amygdala to create a new body memory feeling safe, in control, and connected to our body today. This takes PRACTICE. Next time you experience anxiety or a “body alarm” trying relocating to a quiet place. Place your hand on a neutral place on your body. Take 5 deep breaths. Breath four seconds in. Hold. Push your breath out. Hold. And repeat. Notice the frequency and intensity of your body alarm over time to determine if somatic touch supports a decrease in your physiological symptoms.
3.) Slow Down and Tune In. We could also call this meditation, body scanning, or taking an inventory of the state of your heart, mind, and body. Anxiety feeds off cycles of reinforced fear due to our inability to control our reaction to perceived threat. There are many ways to “slow down” but one of the most important aspects of managing our alarm system is being in tune with what our body is experiencing versus living in a state of reactivity. I often hear from clients that they have lived for years in a state of anger, fear, sadness, disappointment, unhappiness, or loneliness but they don’t know why. Slowing down and tuning in to what your body is telling you is vital for your health and long-term functioning. Our emotions are tools of expression that we can use to measure where we are disconnected from parts of ourselves that need attention and care. Tuning in to these emotions to listen to what they are communicating is an important part of healing chronic anxiety. Repressing emotions causes an increase in anxiety, depression, insomnia, digestive issues, and muscle tension. Tune in to your nervous system to take an inventory of what your physical and emotional well-being are communicating.
Healing is possible.
Brooke Garcia, MSW, LSWAIC
