Anxiety

From OptimalScience

The brain is the organ most responsive to behavior. [Citation Needed] Anxiety is caused by consistently avoiding a trigger. Avoidance trains your amygdala to label things as threats. The amygdala detects threat labels. The amygdala sounds the alarm upon detection. The amygdala watches your response. Approach, a form of challenge, retrains the amygdala to be less triggerable: habituation. Further avoidance trains your amygdala to be more triggerable: sensitization. Anxiety disorders all involve having a phobia of anxiety or a component of the threat response. Adrenaline is the ideal stimulant for the brain. Adrenaline increases IQ, fluency of speech, connections to others, executive function. Adrenaline is essential for flow. Adrenaline can be experienced in high performance states, low performance states, and paralysis (freeze reaction). The appraisal you make of your adrenaline determines its function, for high performance or fight-or-flight response. Beliefs about adrenaline are self-fulfilling prophecies. Reframing flips you from low to high performance. How long habituation takes in a given exposure is a function of reframing and mindfulness.