Anxiety Disorders vs. Normal Anxiety

Most people will experience occasional anxiety concerning things such as family, finances, or health.

When worry and fear become intense and constant, there may be an underlying neurochemical reason. For those suffering from an anxiety disorder, the anxiousness does not alleviate but intensifies over time, with or without a viable reason. Currently, there are several well-known types of anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, severe anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and various phobias.

Such disorders are considered to be mental health conditions, and a person with any of them can be diagnosed with a mental illness. While such diagnoses may be helpful in most instances, more and more researchers are recognizing that such disorders may not be so distinctly psychological but perhaps more neurological and stem from a maladaptive stress response in the limbic system region of the brain.

As we’ll see, the brain is surprisingly malleable, and the field of neuroplasticity may hold promise for those experiencing the above conditions.

What are the common symptoms of anxiety?

There are many common symptoms to be on the lookout for if you think you are experiencing anxiety:

• Feeling restless or on edge, trouble relaxing
• Inability to control worrying
• Easily fatigued from daily life activities
• Difficulty concentrating
• Irritability
• Headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains
• Difficulty controlling worry
• Sleep problems: difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Trembling or twitching
• Feeling nervous
• Sweating
• Digestive changes (constipation or diarrhea)

How is anxiety measured?

One of the more common and trusted measurements of anxiety is the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A), which explores the severity of symptoms. The HAM-A is also a primary tool used in assessing generalized anxiety disorder but is also utilized to evaluate general symptoms of anxiety across several conditions. Other anxiety screening tools include but are not limited to:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7)
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (GADSS)
• Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV (GADQ-IV)
• Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS)
• Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)

Regardless of the number of measurement instruments, the first resource you should use is your health care physician or mental health professional. If you suspect you are suffering from anxiety or an anxiety disorder, speak to your doctor. Your health care provider will perform a physical exam, inquire about your symptoms, and may order labwork with other tests to discover any underlying conditions that may be responsible for symptoms.

Benefits of treating anxiety

Bizarrely enough, the right amount of anxiety is actually beneficial. Anxiety is an instinctive way our body handles stress. In fact, it is anxiety and stress that makes up the fight in the “fight-or-flight” response to intense situations, it’s why the limbic system does such a good job keeping us from harm. The limbic system is the area of the brain in charge of behavioral and emotional reactions, specifically when it comes to behaviors required for survival. For example, if you were face to face with a cougar, your limbic system would start to prepare your body to run away: you would feel your heart rate increase, your muscles tense, and your adrenaline pumping. 

Anxiety’s sole purpose is to protect us from danger by allowing us to react quickly to emergencies. The issue becomes when our limbic system does too good a job; some of what our brain begins to perceive as dangerous is harmless to ourselves, such as public speaking, finishing up a report, or missing a few hours of sleep.

Scientific benefits of normal anxiety levels include:

• Focusing your attention on important issues and situations
• Provides the energy required to take action during stressful situations
• Increases one’s resilience to life’s unpredictability

Health risks related to anxiety

While normal levels of anxiety can provide benefits, elevated feelings of anxiety or anxiety disorders pose several serious health risks.

Cardiovascular risks

Due to the nature of anxiety symptoms, there is an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. If someone already suffers from heart disease, anxiety disorders may increase the chance of further disease, such as coronary artery issues.

Effects on the immune system

Anxiety triggers an individual's flight-or-fight response, which causes the release of neurochemicals (epinephrine) and hormones (adrenaline) into the body.

As a short-term event, these chemicals and hormones increase one’s breathing rate and pulse, meaning the brain is supplied with more  oxygen in preparation for fight or flight. However, the continued feeling of anxiety prevents your body from returning to its normal level of functioning, thus compromising your immune system in the long term.

How to manage anxiety

There are various methods one can employ to manage anxiety symptoms. It is important to remember that some techniques work better for some people than others. In other words, what works for one person may not be as effective for someone else. However, if anxiety symptoms are proving hard to manage or reduce, seek support from a medical professional.

When feelings of anxiety begin to appear, controlled slow breathing can lessen the intensity of adrenaline and racing heartbeats. Another technique is progressively relaxing groups of muscles. This involves being in a quiet room and, over several minutes, attempting to tense and release as many muscles from the body as possible. This method helps with muscle tension caused by anxiety. Being active and having healthy eating habits is also important; this can be as simple as going for a walk outside to spending time with loved ones. It will improve your overall well-being and allow for stress relief.

Overcoming anxiety with neuroplasticity “brain retraining”

At re-origin we focus on addressing anxiety at the source, as opposed to only treating the symptoms. Because anxiety is, at its core, and full-body, mind, and brain condition, re-origin focuses on retraining the limbic system to down-regulate the “threat-reflex” and allow the body and mind to return to a state of calm. This is done in our program by capitalizing on the brain’s neuroplasticity or ability to change. By pruning away old negative neural pathways in the brain and forging new beneficial ones, we can not only learn how to self-regulate but also condition calmness and ease as our new default state. This essentially means calming the brain’s overactive threat-response system so you can permanently and fully recover from persistent anxiety. 

At re-origin, we guide individuals in how to use the perspective of the “curious observer” by separating oneself from anxious thoughts and feelings and then learning to view them as nothing more than a temporary brain loop. By conditioning this new behavior and experience with a series of science-based brain retraining techniques, its members at the re-origin program and community have been able to experience dramatic and permanent shifts in how they feel, function, and present in daily life.