Zalękniony mózg. Jak dzięki sile neuronauki pokonać zaburzenia lękowe, ataki paniki i zamartwianie się

by Catherine M. Pittman, Elizabeth M. Karle, Aleksandra Haduła (Translator)

Przeprogramuj swój sposób myślenia i zacznij żyć bez lęku! Osoby zmagające się z napadami lęku często nie są świadome mechanizmów i miejsc powstawania tego odczucia. Neuronauka określa je bardzo precyzjnie - lęk rodzi się w ciele migdałowatym odpowiadającym za reakcje na zewnętrzne bodźce typu „walcz lub uciekaj” oraz w korze mózgowej związanej z naszymi myślami, czyli zamartwianiem się, obsesjami i ruminacjami. Co jednak ważniejsze, współczesna wiedza o budowie mózgu pozwala nam wreszcie przejąć nad nim kontrolę! Autorki przedstawiają sprawdzone strategie walki z lękiem oparte na najnowszych badaniach w dziedzinie neuronauki. W zrozumiały sposób omawiają, w jaki sposób lęk powstaje w mózgu i pokazują, jak wykorzystać te informacje w praktyce. Zawarte w książce ćwiczenia i wskazówki uczą m.in., jak rozpoznawać i eliminować objawy nadchodzącej paniki, wyciszać lęk przed zaśnięciem czy modyfikować negatywne schematy myślowe – a tym samym odzyskać panowanie nad własnym życiem.

„Jest to publikacja niezwykła pośród wielu książek samopomocowych dla osób z zaburzeniami lękowymi. Autorki przedstawiają wiedzę na temat funkcjonowania mózgu w przystępny sposób, który nie przytłacza czytelnika specjalistyczną terminologią. Neuronauka staje się podstawą strategii zmniejszania poczucia dezorientacji, strachu i wstydu”.
– Sally Winston, doktor psychologii, dyrektor Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland w Towson

„Dzięki temu poradnikowi odkryjesz tajemnice strachu, fobii, paniki i niepokoju, a także poznasz strategie, które zwiększą twoją odporność psychiczną”.
– Reid Wilson, autor książki Don’t Panic

Catherine Pittman jest profesorem nadzwyczajnym Saint Mary’s College w Notre Dame w stanie Indiana. Jako psycholog kliniczny specjalizuje się w leczeniu uszkodzeń mózgu i zaburzeń lękowych, prowadzi też prywatną praktykę w South Bend. Jest członkiem Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). Organizuje warsztaty i seminaria dotyczące lęku i stresu.

Elizabeth M. Karle zarządza księgozbiorem Cushwa-Leighton Library w Saint Mary’s College w Notre Dame. Współpracując z Catherine Pittman, dzieli się nie tylko wynikami badań naukowych, lecz także własnym doświadczeniem osoby cierpiącej na zaburzenia lękowe.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Science, Health, Neuroscience

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2015

Reviews

[Daniel Aguilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found great relief from reading (actually listening to, since I got the audio version) this book. Very recently I suffered, out of the blue, a few episodes of what I thought was some serious condition (I don't mean to underestimate anxiety disorders, which can actually be very serious and debilitating). I feared something was wrong with my heart or my brain. When I finally visited the doctor (doctors, actually, as I was checked by 3 different ones) I found out something I wasn't expecting at all: I discovered I had experienced what is called "anxiety attacks" or "panic attacks". All the tests I went through (blood, ECGs and neurological) passed without problem. Actually, I happened to be more than fine in all of them. The problem, I was told, was in my mind.

This left me truly astonished. I consider myself a rather calmed, rational person, and in recent times I've been feeling quite relaxed (as opposed to some other times in my life were stress was far more evident), and couldn't understand where something as intense and frightening as what I experienced could come from, specially since I had never had any remotely similar episode at all.

Besides following the doctor indications I felt the urge to learn more about it, and among the many titles covering the topic, this one popped up recommended in many reviews and comments through the internet. I am very happy I grabbed it, as it provided me with great relief from the very first chapters. Not only did my symptoms match perfectly what the book described, but also stated very clearly that:

1. It is manageable and reversible
2. It's pretty normal (prevalent), although in different degrees
3. The sooner you understand it it and treat it, the easier it is to fix

So, enough about my personal motivation for reading the book (which, hopefully, can perhaps provide hope and alleviation for others in the same situation of initial shock and fear). Let me now briefly describe the book itself.

This work is very easy to read, even though it covers some of the neuroscience, physiology and biochemistry involved. It describes how the mechanisms of anxiety are deeply rooted in our body, the result of millions of years of evolution, and what are the different pathways through which anxiety can run amok, becoming pathological.

In rough terms, there are basically two main pathways causing or increasing anxiety: the amygdala and the neocortex. They are described separately, as the effective interventions may vary depending on which one is more important for each case, but the author does a great job explaining how they are always interconnected, usually creating feedback loops that make it easy to spiral down to pathology.

The first part of the book is dedicated to a general description. What is the function of anxiety (mostly surviving to threats), the brain areas and hormones involved (mainly amygdala and neocortex, adrenalin, cortisol), the implications in personal life, family, society... when things go wrong and, as stated above, a message of hope thanks to the capacity of the brain to rewire itself (neuroplasticity).

The second part of the book focuses on the amygdala-type cases. These are usually the ones that come up apparently from nowhere, leaving the patient unable to identify the source of such a powerful reaction of her mind/body. I immediately felt identified. It explains how the amygdala system has its own "language", based on associations that are mostly unconscious and very tightly connected to other primary body functions such as the cardiovascular system, digestion and muscles. This is why the experience of an anxiety attack feels so "real and physical", making it very usual for patients to believe something is really wrong (heart attack, stroke, etc...). After the detailed descriptions in each chapter, there are some exercises in the form of assessments to help the reader identify and define his symptoms for further treatment. Finally, another set of exercises are suggested as the more efficient ways of addressing each case: relaxation techniques (deep breathing, progressive relaxation, good lifestyle choices such as having proper sleep, creating new associations and more).

The third part is dedicated to neocortex-based anxiety. This is when the brain gets into obsessively negative thoughts. In these cases the source of anxiety tends to be somewhat more easily identifiable, as the brain parts involved are the ones providing the higher-level functions of consciousness. Again, each chapter provides assessments and coping strategies for those needing them, such as mindfulness techniques, cognitive restructuring, reinterpretation and more.

Both parts two and three make some references to medication but, of course, that is left to the doctor/specialist. Interestingly, and opposed to what perhaps many people think, medication is not always necessary. Actually, it is usually reserved only for the most serious cases as an aid to support the more important and effective cognitive / behavioural interventions.

So, all in all the book provides both a theoretical framework to understand the subject AND a practical guide for patients to help themselves, taking into account that there are two main different basis for the problem but that these two are tightly interconnected (a stress response caused mainly by the amygdala will cause the necortex to be alarmed, and viceversa, neocortex pathological processes will cause the amygdala to trigger a lower level stress response).

I strongly encourage anyone suffering from any sort of anxiety disorder (or knowing anyone who does) to read this book. It really helped me a lot. And also, I would recommend it to anyone in general interested in how our brain (and body) works, which is always surprising and amazing.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read this from cover to cover, as I've read other books like it before. My main interest was in seeing how solid the scientific basis of this is -- one of the authors has a PhD, but I could have a PhD in literature, which would by no means qualify me to speak on neuroscience -- and how helpful I thought it might be for other people who end up in the same position I've been in. The good news is, from my knowledge of science and my intimate knowledge of anxiety disorders, there's a lot here that's useful. It doesn't just focus on targeting the conscious part of anxiety generated by the cortex -- which people often try to target on its own, with CBT -- but also acknowledges the contribution of the amygdala.

Generally, it seems a sympathetic and credible book that someone with curiosity and determination could work through to help cope with anxiety, whether it's a full blown disorder or just something that crops up more often than you'd like. It's not an exhaustive reference book of information mentioning every single disorder, every single type of medication, but it is somewhere to start. And it quite rightly encourages the reader to get the help of medical professionals, and it doesn't dismiss the uses of medication.

[Lubinka Dimitrova · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a clearly written and simple (but not simplistic) way this book presents and thoroughly explains the role of the amygdala in causing anxiety. Nothing superfluous, but on the contrary, the book offers very practical advice and succinct techniques to re-train one's anxious mind and overcome crippling reactions of the mind, which could immensely improve the lives of many who suffer from anxiety. Knowledge is power. When we understand the way our body functions, we are able to take control over many stressful and debilitating situations. Readings like this are just as engrossing as fantasy books, and they remind me of the reason why to me, science is magical.

[Tree ✶.˚⟡ ࣪ ⋆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong, this is educational. It talks about the parts of the brain that turn your anxiety on/off and such. But that’s all there is. If you have a serious anxiety disorder then, this isn’t for you.

This author sounds like when people find out you are sad and then tell you to stop being sad. Thanks???

Everyone is different. One person’s experience will not be identical to another. But idk man, the exercises are so superficial* and condescending that I was getting annoyed and more anxious the more I read, which never happens when I read. Some exercises of exposure are downright dangerous, especially if you suffer from panic attacks. There’s nothing here I haven’t heard or tried before, despite the book trying to convince you otherwise. It honestly sounded like every other self help book out there. I really wanted to like this and most importantly to find it useful, but it’s not for me. The truth is I don’t expect any book to treat the root of my anxiety because that is very personal to each person. But claiming to treat the symptoms to alleviate them for sure? No…

-
*Do breathing exercises (ok)
*Meditate (ok ok)
*Schedule a time to worry (what)
*Go for a run (wow haven’t heard that one before… and I certainly don’t ever do that…. ps: I do.)
*Resist anxiety (now you’re laughing at me)
*And don’t get me started on the false positivity bit ay ay ay… I’m all for positive thinking but you know that being positive all the time is unrealistic right? Especially in the state of the world we live in? I don’t trust anyone who says they’re positive or happy all the time. That’s not a negative thought that’s just a small observation.

[Nele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: this book is not a quick-fix for your anxiety. It gives great insights on how your mind works, and how your anxiety is triggered.
But you have to do the work.
Go for it, you strong person.

This book has helped me deal with my anxiety. The last 2 years it has been far worse than before, with my grandfather's passing last year and a lot of changes this year as well. (and this pandemic that we're all in)
I picked it up when my anxiety was at an all-time high. I had a nasty break-up, had my heart shattered, and I was experiencing panic attacks as a result to that...
It hurts when someone just leaves and makes you feel like you don't matter.
I knew I had to do something, which led me to this book.

Finishing this book also feels like finishing the cycle, so I'm able to move on.
Some people are just toxic, and bad for your mental health.

So yeah, this book gave me great insight, tools on how to deal with my anxiety, and how to change that pattern.
It all starts with awareness. Be aware that you're being anxious, that you're feeling down
And please... don't be so hard on yourself

[Pietrino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un mio ex collega mi ha raccontato che una decina di anni fa è quasi morto a causa di troppo Gin. Da allora, ancora oggi soltanto sentendone l’odore rivive quella brutta serata a Brighton e finisce per rovinarsi la giornata.

Se volete sapere il perché, oppure spiegare a vostro padre che quando vi vede su di giri vi dice di «stare tranquillo» che non funziona proprio così, sappiate che siete nel posto giusto.

Il libro è un bel resoconto sui trigger e i funzionamenti principali legati all'ansia. E lo fa molto bene, stile for dummies. Il problema è che finisce presto per essere troppo ripetitivo. Va bene che non stiamo parlando di frazioni, ma manco di rocket science. Avrebbe avuto più senso farla semplice in un capitoletto e poi non parlarne ogni tre per due (se siete pratici di paper medici, succede una roba simile). Dopo la sezione teorica c'è una roba pratica che ti spiega perché ha senso fare certe cose, e come farle. Peccato però che questa sezione sia estremamente spiccia.

mh

Buono il fatto che tutto sia backed by science (love it) però credo il tutto potesse essere organizzato un pochino meglio. E non ho amato il fatto di leggere cose tipo «Io ti consiglio sta roba in mezza pagina, poi se ti piace in fondo ti lascio in lista dei libri in cui approfondirlo» (Sto parafrasando)

Per cui vabè, ho accettato lo spunto e poi per la pratica sono andato su Reddit, quindi poco male.

Anche perché credo che la cosa più importante sia sensibilizzare il tema, informandosi e parlandone. Perché non c'è nulla di male. Quindi se non vi interrogate su cose di questo tipo, io vi consiglio comunque di leggere questo libro. Perché è un ottimo punto di partenza e perchè l'ansia e lo stress fanno parte della nostra quotidianità. Che ci piaccia o meno.

Che sia capire perché il mio collega aveva certe reazioni, o prendere atto che tuo padre aveva torto e tu ragione, questo libro vi spiega il perché. E lo fa discretamente bene.

Il perché certe cose nel 2021 siano ancora dei tabù come qualcosa che fa sentire colpevole chi prova certe sensazioni, quello rimane ancora un mistero.

Peace Off

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a book that is just going to provide strategies for how to overcome anxiety, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you are interested in both the neuroscience behind stress and anxiety and learning techniques to cope with those responses, then this is an excellent volume to read. Personally, I agree with the authors that it is often easier to overcome stress when you actually know and understand what is happening to your brain, and how it can manifest itself in physical ways. And while this book is very detailed, I think the authors did a good job of keeping everything easy to understand.

Numerous types of stress are discussed in this book, including the reasons that these types of stress occur and what parts of the brain are responsible for your response. If you're anything like me, you are constantly trying to make logical sense out of your worry, but I learned from this book that there may not always be a logical reason behind your anxiety. In fact, you may not ever really know why you certain situations, thoughts, sounds, smells, etc., can trigger an episode of panic. The good news is that you don't have to know. The authors go into great detail to describe techniques that you can use to essentially "rewire" your brain to avoid having stress responses. The book mainly discusses the two different parts of the brain that deal with fear and stress, the amygdala and the cortex. The amygdala is basically your body's natural fear response system. Your amygdala often works without your ever knowing it, such as when you are driving and instinctively swerve out of the way to avoid hitting another car. The cortex, on the other hand, deals with worry and obsessive thoughts. For example, your cortex is to blame when you are constantly worrying about a possible outcome that will likely not occur. You may have one or both of these types of stress, and the authors provide useful "exercises" that can be used to deal with both of these types of stress.

If you're reading this review, I'm guessing that you probably don't care about all of these details though, right? What you really want to know is if the methods in this book really work. I think they could certainly help many individuals who suffer from stress and anxiety. These authors give insightful strategies to help with different types of stress responses, all of which are based on years of research. Your stress isn't going to go away overnight having read this book, but it certainly may help you learn to cope with your anxiety when it does occur.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley.

This review also appears on my blog, Reading Rachael.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The brain is endlessly fascinating to me. And I’m always interested in understanding neuroplasticity or ways of “rewiring” the neural pathways.

This book talks extensively about anxiety stemming from the amygdala versus the cortex. I felt like I learned something new there. Various questions and exercises are designed to help you figure out whether your worries are more cortex or amygdala based or left or right brained. That’s kind of interesting. But since amygdala based fears can be, for instance, triggered by a song that you heard during a traumatic event, but that the cortex didn’t register, it’s difficult to pinpoint those the source of those types of anxieties. I couldn’t identify any triggers or traumas for me and have decided my cortex is likely the culprit for anxiety in my life.

I tend to be a worrier. I’m up right now in the middle of the night stressing about work stuff. What I learned is that I’m already doing much of the stuff recommended for calming the mind and reversing anxiety. The book recommends things like breathing, meditation, exercise, spending time in nature, redirecting negative thoughts, etc. I’m not sure I found anything new here.

There was discussion about exposure therapy, which sounds fairly stressful.

The book is a bit repetitive and dry. I listened to the audio and it’s tough to be engaged by an audio that sounds like a text book.

Decent book but not one that wowed me.

[John Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's science

Anxiety seems to be on the rise. This book will give you an insight into why, and explain how to tackle it, often with professional help. It's not woo-woo; it's science.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this review to me. If you've been in treatment for anxiety, done CBT or DBT this will mostly be review. Exercise and sleep reduces anxiety as we know. Also CBT, mindfulness and medication can help. "Exercise produces a protein that promotes the growth of neurons in the brain, particularly in cortex and hippocampus."

Two types of anxiety: amygdala-based and cortex-basedI may have heard this before but can't recall so new information to me. Amygdala is responsible for the flight or fight response. It attaches EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE to situations or objects. The cortex pathway creates worries, obsessions and interpretations that create anxiety. You can have one or the other or both. If focusing on specific thoughts or images you have cortex-based anxiety. If you feel that a specific object, location or situation elicits an anxiety response you have amygdala-based anxiety.

"Anxiety is a human emotion, produced by the human brain, and emotions are caused by the brain's reactions to situations, not the situations themselves."

The brain is neuropathic. It holds the capacity to change its structures and reorganize powers of reacting.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a longer than usual review, hoping my personal experience will help others.
“A half-truth is even more dangerous than a lie. A lie, you can detect at some stage, but half a truth is sure to mislead you for long.”
― Anurag Shourie, Half A Shadow
"Learning is not wrong. What we learn may be"
-Me
Logic is my modus operandi. As such many times I have tendency to focus not as much on what is but rather on why is.
However, logic needs at least 3 preconditions in order to produce valid answers to a certain problem:
-sufficiency of input data
-quality of input data
-right question for the right problem.
In 2016 I started to experience intense anxiety and emotional disregulation like never in my life before (as a matter of fact I didn't know how real anxiety feels before). Things got brutal for me and people around me but preconception held me from asking help: first, my preconception that therapy is good for kindergarten girls and that I have the resources to handle myself ( I am a man for Christ sake), second, I am the type that I need to understand before being capable to solve a problem, I cannot apply procedures blindly because something just is, without understanding the why's.
As things were aggravating and (more) pushed by my partner I did accept to see a therapist.
At first it didn't work at all and kept changing therapists. After a while of persistence it seems like results are coming, but it turned that I was very easily slipping back. Even when results seemed to be consistent for a short while, deep inside I did feel something does not add up, that I am not on the right path leading to solving my problems.
I had limited knowledge at the time and all and everything, including therapists were pointing at amygdala reactions (that is the mother of all anxieties), sooner or later it all comes down to it.
I was focus on amygdala and how to tame it, but little that I knew that amygdala reaction can be triggered in different ways.
As I said initially therapists were pointing at an amygdala based anxiety and disregulation
As shown in this book triggers for this type is external.
That worked well with the fact that
1 I was convinced that in my case the cause is external (environment, circumstances, etc) and I guess it was handy to blame somebody or the circumstance. It was also convenient to share blame and the illusion that it was not serious, that once the environment is ok it will all go away.
2 Therapists also told me that given the circumstances I was going trough at the time, my reactions were normal.
But for me still something didn't add up (even if externaly I didn't show it), something was not ok, despite of some periods of improved reactions and control, results were way less than consistent while my answer was rationalizing, and that of course is not satisfactory.
With time, becoming more aware and honest with myself, I could not find any specific trigger to blame as a cause, triggers seemed to show out of the blue and always different.
An example of what often happened: I was alone in the house for the day, waiting for my wife to come home, I love her very much and couldn't wait to see her, however once she was home, tension started, I became irritable without her doing anything to frustrate me. I couldn't point anything at her (actually I did but that was wrong) and was also absurd that thinking all day how happy I would be to see her, all of a sudden when she was there I started a fight that I didn't want or need. At some point I had concluded she is my trigger, but that didn't go well with the fact that in general I was happy with her, and miss her all day.
With amygdala anxiety, triggers are typically external, a spider, the view of a needle, a smell, a sound, a person etc so she seemed a good fit to take the blame.
I started to realize that I was looking for fake triggers just to fit an answer, one to justify a convenient but otherwise incorrect conclusion.
I couldn't find triggers because they didn't exist or not outside my head, my problem was not an amygdala type of anxiety and disregulation, but due to cortex activity that, in response triggered the amygdala. Triggers were not external, triggers were in my head. I was building thoughts in my head, and the blame on external triggers was just an excuse, (a wrong but convenient answer to a search for something that was missing because I was looking in the wrong place). It wasn't my wife, it could have been anything, I was just waiting for something that may look good enough as a trigger and "enable" me to react
I did change therapists again, followed an intensive DBT program, things got significantly better with constant meditation but still a link was missing. Then I did change the therapist again, and finally she pointed that my reactions origin is in cortex. I was not triggered by external factors, circumstances or people around me, those were just scape goat triggers, the problem was my cortex triggering amygdala due to overthinking, perfectionism catastrophizing and other happening in my cortex area.
I stopped looking for someone to blame, or explaining trough circumstaces. I started to take a hard honest look at what was going in my head (or my cortex)
I also started to read more about. This book confirms my latest therapist hypothesis.
I understood, and I believe I have now much better idea.
Once I understood, progress was quite fast and solid- this is how I am, once I understand things are flowing a good pace. I was working on the right person, me as individual, not looking around to find excuses.
For me it worked, I am much better but most important I do feel now the peace that I am doing the right thing, that the missing links were found and I am close. I don't have anymore the feeling in my gut that I am walking but not exactly moving. It is all more clear and peaceful in me. Not saying always, but even when I feel I might overreact most of the time I can control it with an ease that wasn't possible before, I don't take things so personal, I don't let myself transported by the river of emotions but rather observe them and say to myself "the hell with them, they are just thoughts". I also come back to base line much sooner.
I wish I had read this book 2 years ago. Or maybe I wasn't ready.
My point for those with emotional disregulations, anxiety and panic attacks is: don't quit, if things don't work, look at them from a different perspective, change therapists, read and ask your therapist questions but mainly take a honest careful look at yourself and don't let yourself fooled by half truths or things that make you feel better but are not effective. Things can be fixed believe me or at least made better, significantly better, but one must want, really want to get better.
This book will help not only with anxiety so read it!
I will read it again in a little while.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very useful and informative book. The book is pitched to well-read, intelligent laypeople and explains the neurobiology and the underlying research in a clear, concise and comprehendible fashion. After reading this book, the reader will understand the mechanisms of anxiety very well.

Dr. Pittman and Ms. Karle cover treatments, which the typical anxious person can do on his own, and more in depth treatments which require professional help. The authors are very clear about when someone suffering from anxiety should seek assistance from professionals.

I would recommend this book to anyone curious about anxiety and how to deal and treat it. This is very well written and accessible and not intimidating at all. A very good read!

[Tan Markovic]

An interesting insight into the different ways we can experience anxiety and effective methods on how to rewire the patterns!

[Steph Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great blend of education on the neural pathways to anxiety as well as practical advice and suggestions for dealing with anxiety. It has already helped me a lot with providing psychoeducation and developing treatment plans for my clients.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book with great info. Super repetitive however, and not necessarily in the way you'd think but it's like the book is constantly marketing itself. Instead of an overview of the book in the first chapter, it's like the book is giving overviews throughout the book. "As you'll see in chapter X" is repeated about a million times (more or less).

5 stars for material, with a 2 star deduction for wasting my time with useless repetition.

[Natalia Leśniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5
Merytoryczna książka, w przystępny sposób wyjaśnia, jak zachowuje się nasz mózg, kiedy odczuwamy lęk. Zawiera wiele sposobów walki z lękiem, które są potwierdzone badaniami naukowymi.

[Melanie]

This has the potential to literally change my life. If so, the author is a magician. Let's seeee....

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am monk now

But in all seriousness, this book gave me so much relief and the ability to enjoy situations of which otherwise would’ve been stressful. Still antisocial as fuck tho :)

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this on audible audiobook after discovering my library has more of the popular audio-book stuff available. And it was an Audible suggestion… wait… how did they know I’m anxious?
*joking*
[Only a little bit joking.]

The narrator is very like an autobot and it took me some time to get used to that.
It comes with a lot of caveats, naturally. If you need professional help or medication, please get it. It also starts with suggesting better sleep, exercise and the usual cures.
A lot of the idea here is kind of grounded in the theory that if you know why it’s happening, you may be able to veer it off, or stop it, before it gets too serious.
Physically, our amygdala is ancient. It protects us from heights, spiders, and creepy strangers, not from cars, guns and more recent inventions. Primitive is its base grade setting, but it can be trained to learn new skills. We can learn to be frightened of guns for instance.
They suggest the key is to identify whether your anxiety is logic brain (the cortex) or primitive brain (the amygdala) sourced/related. And there are exercises to help you ID this.
If it’s primitive brain stuff, treating it logically probably won’t work. For instance, it doesn’t matter how many times you tell yourself a spider has never hurt you, if you are still terrified of them, then you’re terrified.
Or you might be scared that the group you are making a speech to will ostracise you, and then you’ll die outside of the tribe. It’s not a logical fear so it can’t be defeated by logic.
In fact, your amygdala may not recognise the distinction between thoughts and things actually occurring. [this is called cognitive fusion]
For instance: You imagine you failed a test, you run over and over in your mind the consequences and emotions of failing, and the next time you do a test - you remember that fear and shame, rather than that you passed.
***
If nothing else, this book has made me see that I do deep breathing wrong. I compress my diaphragm when I breathe in, instead of inflating it out.
[how? All those years of choir, and I can’t even breathe properly?]
I also freeze. This is the first time I have heard of an extra part to the fright or flight scenario; it’s freeze.
I do this. Recently, I was at a party and spilt a glass of red wine on a person. I froze. I didn’t apologise, or rush off to get a cloth and clean it up. I just froze. Everyone looked at me very oddly (which cycled into my panic response). Hours later I realised I was waiting for my ex to shout at me so I knew what was the ‘right’ thing to do. He’s long gone, but those learned habits/survival skills I needed during our marriage remain.
Guilt and shame provoke anxiety as well.
Thought stopping, mindfulness, positive statements, recognising when you’re being negative or pessimistic, are some of the strategies suggested.
Worrying is exhausting. And may be caused by the cortex getting stuck in a worry circuit loop. Normally it would send instructions to the amygdala and mark it as complete and move on to the next thing.
Catastrophising; a simple traffic light causes a huge amount of anger or frustration. And adds to your anxiety.
Omg this was my mother.
She’d say: Don’t walk on that wall because you will fall and break your arm and your father has the car and we can’t call an ambulance because he forgot to pay the subscription fee last month and we can’t afford the fee without the insurance and we can’t borrow money from your grandmother again… etcetera
It used to make me laugh as a kid, [I’d probably got off the wall before she got to the end of her list of disasters] but now I reckon I’ve taken on some of her issues.

You can’t change thoughts you aren’t aware of. So the key is to recognise what’s happening and be sceptical of it; distancing yourself from it. [using mindfulness techniques]
Replace those thoughts. Like this:
Anxiety provoking thought: it’s no use trying. Things will never work out for me.
Coping thought: I am going to try, at least there’s a chance I will accomplish something.
Keep thinking the coping thoughts all the time and eventually your brain will start to generate them first, rather than the anxiety ones.
The pathways in the brain that we use the most become the ones it defaults to. It’s like when you’ve forgotten the name for something. If you keep stressing about it, all you do is remember that you’ve forgotten it. (if that makes sense). Stop thinking about it, and most of the time the name pops right into your head. Your brain has found the old pathway instead of constantly running along the ‘I’ve forgotten it’ path.

I have finished the audio book but I am already re-listening and making notes for all the exercise parts that I couldn’t complete while I was wandering about the neighbourhood.
With some previous audiobooks, extras have been added as a pdf to your Audible account. Here, they want you to go to their website and sign up to get the free downloads. *eyes narrow* That’s a bit annoying.
https://www.newharbinger.com/rewire-y...
But I found it rather interesting.
I’m not sure how well the exercises will go, but it can’t hurt to try.
[Oooh… look at that positive coping thought. Lmao]
4 stars

[Kristen Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d rate this my top book this year because of how helpful it is. It is written in layman’s terms with practical advice in responding to the amygdala and to the cortex in coping with anxiety.

[Amy Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised at how interesting and helpful this was, considering I’d picked it up as a free borrow of the month on hoopla, and that I expected some unbiblical psychobabble. It did have evolutionary presuppositions, but a Christian could easily take a lot of these ideas and apply biblical thinking to them. The author made an interesting and helpful distinction between two parts of the brain that are involved when we experience fear or worry and practical assessments and techniques to help yourself overcome these. An addition of meditation on truths of God would make this very workable.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost every one of us feels anxiety from time to time. The frequency varies from person to person; and sometimes there are several cases of people who are anxious every day for as long as they can remember. Now the question is: How can we deal with it?

This new book Rewiring Your Anxious Brain by Catherine Pittman and Elizabeth Karle offers us scientific insights as to what happens in our brain when we get anxious. The authors presented a very easy to understand case on how our cortex and amygdala play very crucial roles in what makes us anxious.

After reading this book, the following things may happen to you:

1. Understand why despite our repeated attempts to calm down we still remain anxious of different situations
2. Understand why telling people positive thoughts or helping them rationalize their situations would not working all the time
3. Gain insights as to why there are some people just feel anxious or uneasy with no logical reasons
4. Know how the brain works when our anxiousness comes from cortex or amygdala
5. Know that there are different reasons for anxiousness and there is no panacea for it
6. Know what you can do to rewire your brain and handle anxiousness properly.

The principles provided by the authors are very useful not just only to the subject of anxiety but also in other brain related activity as well. You can use the principles here in learning new skills and making yourself more happy.

[Ashraf Bashir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very repetitive. The author keeps pushing the actions to next chapter, then in next chapter to next, till you find the actions at latest chapters are simply do breathing exercises, meditate, do positive visualisations, catch your triggers early, thought stopping, workout, sleep well, plan in advance to decrease worries, set goals and achieve them, act, distract your thoughts when you are in negative loop thoughts, listen to music, play games, use positive imagination, focus on present moment through mindfulness, walk, understand the difference between reality and worries, and consider medications. These are all very primitive well known suggestions, what does the book provides new? The most annoying part is when the author mentions that "I will not discuss this topic because there are many books that did this already!" Really?! ... The scientific explanation is good enough and well simplified, but the action parts are waste of time

[Andreea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful, although I didn't pay much attention to it. I didn't write down or try techniques but they sound like they should work. I might reread it some day. Unfortunately my style of learning is using many sources, not paying attention to any of them and hoping the main points stick. But you will surely get better results if you're not like this.
The main idea I got (at least by the end) is that anxiety comes from our own thoughts about how things might go and the brain doesn't know the difference between reality and imagination so it pretty much prepares the body for war. You have to try to differentiate and not let your imagination run wild when it tries to.

[Sravya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides the science especially the biology of why and how anxiety, fear, and worry occur and how to deal, how to avoid them. This might be helpful to a great extent to someone who has serious anxiety issues and needs to hear from somebody else about what needs to be done. But in general, the methods mentioned are simple and we all know them, call it common sense, call it culture, but these are all known. Things like meditation, mindfulness, exercise, diversion are mentioned. Prepare yourself to hear the words amygdala, cortex, and anxiety a million times if you are starting this book. ;)

[Shane Santini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book not only about neurology and science but myself-my brain-the way that I think and feel-my anxiety-triggers-coping mechanisms. This book was well researched, informative and offers some good advise for people that suffer from anxiety which can be debilitating-exhausting. I liked it and would recommend.

[Paulina Kowalska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo ciekawa książka z mnóstwem interesujących informacji. W dość lekki sposób przekazuje wiedzę na temat funkcjonowania mózgu i procesów związanych z lękiem, przy czym nie traci naukowego charakteru. Odejmuję jedną gwiazdkę za liczne powtórzenia i sposób prowadzenia narracji jak w pracy magisterskiej. Wciąż polecam!

[Amy French · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to help someone understand the basics of anxiety and gently encouraging them to work on their anxiety with a therapist and to become more aware of the various forms that anxiety can take and how it can affect you. It even has exercises to help. I really like that this was a relatively small book and the authors try to make sure everything in there is easy to understand for anyone. I don’t think this book alone will cure anxiety, but it’s a really great first step and quite helpful. My main dislikes are that it can be a bit repetitive in some chapters and the organization of the book was a bit off. You’ll have to flip back and forth between the exercises and what they’re for.

[Lana Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read on anxiety that explains the difference between cortex and amygdala based anxiety. It gives clear ways to manage anxiety depending on where it stems from. This book has the right balance of scientific language and layman language to explain it to everyone. Thank you for this book.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful and easy to read. Highly recommend