Do you constantly feel anxious, panicked, and stressed out? Do you often feel life is fraught with danger? Are you burdened with constant, obsessive thoughts which, no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to escape? If this describes you, it’s critical to understand what’s happening in your brain to create this relentlessly unbearable experience. Armed with this comprehension, as well as a couple of tricks and tips, you can gain control over big portions of your thoughts, emotions, obsessions, and therefore your life.
According to Pittman and Youngs, in their book, Rewire Your OCD Brain: Powerful Neuroscience-Based Skills to Break Free from Obsessive Thoughts and Fears, our brains operate under specific rules and limits. Once we comprehend these aspects of our brains’ functions, we can use these rules and processes to help us exert more control over our feelings, thoughts, and therefore our lives.
“Just as you need to understand enough about how your automobile operates to keep it in good condition, you also need to know enough about your brain to get it to operate in a way that keeps you more comfortable. Having obsessions or constant worries in your brain is like having a car with a specific glitch or malfunction. Knowing about the glitch in your car’s engine can be helpful in knowing how to manage the problem. You may need to constantly monitor the oil and regularly add some” (Pittman & Youngs, 2021, p. 5).
Where Does My Anxiety Come from and What Do I Do with this Info?
To some extent, our anxiety is inherited. Multiple adoption studies, for example, have demonstrated that there is a genetic component to having anxiety disorders.
Additionally, researchers have uncovered that a variety of anxiety conditions can be acquired through viruses that impact the brain (specifically two viruses which tend to impact children between the ages of 3 and 12).
These viruses, PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus) and PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome), damage a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. When this area of the brain incurs damage, a person experiences symptoms such as obsessive thinking, compulsive behavior, and tics (Bernstein et. al., 2010; as cited by Pittman & Youngs, 2021).
Another one of the most critical and common contributors to an anxiety condition is growing up in an environment that exposes one to it in a significant way. Significant can take the form of one or several events that affected you strongly and/or a continuous and consistent exposure to anxious conditions. For instance, perhaps you regularly witnessed mom or dad express specific fears and worries about a variety of topics.
When you consider these ways in which you can develop anxiety conditions and struggles, one of the key takeaways is it is not your fault.
You didn’t ask for, nor did you have any control over, your genetics.
You didn’t ask for, nor did you have any control over, getting PANDAS or PANS as a 3-to-12-year-old kid.
You didn’t ask for, nor did you have any control over, witnessing the way those around you felt, thought, and acted, as well as how they responded to those feelings.
Since you didn’t have control over any of these ways you acquired considerable anxiety and/or obsessive thinking, you should not blame yourself for struggling with it/them.
Your responsibility solely lies in learning about what you’re enduring and what you can do to manage your vulnerabilities much better.
Do You Struggle with Obsessive Thinking? How about Compulsive Behavior?
When you endure thoughts that appear to repeat in endless cycles, this is known as obsessive thinking.
The most common type of obsessive thinking is worry, which involves thoughts about what could go wrong and possible negative outcomes that could happen. Oftentimes, this kind of obsessive thinking begins with “What if…” and end with unpleasant and terrifying ideas of what could occur.
Meanwhile, obsessions, another kind of obsessive thinking, involve repetitive thinking. While worries tend to change depending on the day, obsessions tend to stay more consistent over time.
Some examples of common obsessions are as follows:
- Doubts about whether you did something
- Relentless focus on deciding what you should do
- Religious or sexual obsessions
- Perfectionism
Oftentimes, obsessive thinking leads us to take action to attempt to cope with the thoughts or stop them in some way. This is where compulsions are born. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts someone partakes in to attempt to respond to an unpleasant, even unbearable, thought or situation. Compulsions are attempts at reducing distress.
Some examples of common compulsions are as follows:
- Checking
- Counting
- Cleaning
- Seeking reassurance
For instance, perhaps you experience anxiety, distress, and obsessive thinking when your room is dirty, but when you clean your room, you feel the anxiety dissipate. The relief you experience rewards you for participating in the behavior of cleaning your room. The major problem with compulsions is that reward (the relief) serves as a temporary band-aid that ultimately makes your compulsion stronger (Pittman & Youngs, 2021, p. 10).
Brain Structures Involved in Anxiety and Obsessive Thinking
The area of the brain called the cortex, a large region at the top, produces obsessive thinking and worries. It is responsible for processing information from our senses (such as our ears and eyes) so we can make sense of what we see, hear, and so on. It is also crucial in helping us determine if something our senses pick up is of concern and then ultimately plays a critical role in responding to danger.
The other area of the brain that helps us recognize and respond to danger is the amygdala. This almond-shaped structure at the center of the brain produces the body’s most effective and swift response to perceived danger. This region detects potential danger in milliseconds, which is
much faster than the cortex. This explains why you might experience things like rapid heartbeat, shallow and quick breathing, and muscle tension and not even know why, only to learn moments later that your amygdala thought it saw a snake in front of you and was trying to keep you safe.
Notice in this example, your amygdala thought it saw a snake and reacted quickly to keep you safe and alive. The problem is that it was wrong and can often be wrong.
The 3 Biggest Problems with the Amygdala
- It is not built for accuracy. Because its sole purpose is to keep us safe, and it works to do so in milliseconds, it often misses tons of information
- Additionally, it responds just as it did thousands of years ago, during hunting and gathering times, when there were pervasive and continual real threats to one’s life. This area of the brain is not updated to reflect the much more modern and safe times.
- “It may be helpful to imagine the amygdala ‘watching’ what is going on in the cortex, much like a child might watch television. Just as a child might react to a frightening movie with fear, the amygdala responds to frightening images or thoughts produced in the cortex by creating a defense response in the body, which we experience as fear and anxiety. This, in turn, leads to even greater concern about the thoughts. Basically, the frightening thoughts result in a frightening bodily reaction, and this produces anxiety and increases the focus on the frightening thoughts. You can see how this process can become a cycle, where thoughts lead to anxiety and anxiety creates more concern about and more attention to your thoughts, which leads to even more anxiety” (Pittman & Young, 2021, p. 15).
While these processes can be useful (when you thinking and worrying about something that is actually dangerous), the problem lies in the countless moments when you aren’t in actual danger.
Consider all the times where, for example, you worried your flight will crash, you’ll fail the exam, or your date will completely reject you. Now, consider all the times where these worries and fears came true.
The problem is that we often worry and think about images and ideas that trick our amygdala, as it watches this thinking/worrying part of our brain closely, into thinking there is real danger. The amygdala then produces the defense response (fight, flight, or freeze), and we are left with worsened anxiety, fear, and potentially obsessive thinking.
Some Key Takeaways
- The more we know about how our brain works when it comes to anxiety and obsession, the more we can gain control over it.
- When we realize our anxious and obsessive tendencies are not our fault, we make it that much easier to respond to them.
- If we engage in compulsions, we are likely to feel immediate relief, but long-term pain. So, we want to do our best to avoid those compulsions. In future blogs, we will look at healthier strategies to use in those moments.
Know that when you feel anxiety, fear, overwhelm, etc., the part of your brain that is likely implicated is not built for accuracy. Try to realize, then, when something is actual danger or not. Additionally, try to recognize when something is danger or just discomfort.- Are You Ready to Gain Control Over Your Anxiety and Obsessive Thinking with a San Diego Couples’ Therapist?
It can be so exhausting and difficult to go through life with such a high level of continual anxiety, fear, and obsessive thinking. You do not have to live this way, though. At Stress Solutions, we are committed to helping people like yourself to gain a much better understanding of what your anxiety, stress, fear, and obsessions are all about, as well as to learn the tools and approaches to gain profoundly greater control over them. That way, you can live the much calmer, in control, and happier life you deserve.
To learn if we are the right fit to help, we encourage you to email or call us to schedule your free consultation today!
