Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

by Judson Brewer MD PhD

A problem can’t be solved by the same consciousness that created it. —INTERNET MEME ATTRIBUTED TO ALBERT EINSTEIN

So how do we keep our PFCs online in uncertain times? How can we avoid panic? Too many times, I’ve seen my anxious clinic patients try to suppress or think themselves out of anxiety. Unfortunately, both willpower and reasoning rely on the PFC, which at these critical moments has shut down and isn’t available. Instead, I start by teaching them how their brains work so that they can understand how uncertainty weakens their brain’s ability to deal with stress, priming it for anxiety when fear hits. Learning that uncertainty triggers anxiety, which in turn can lead to panic, allows them to be on the lookout. And simply knowing that this is their survival brain kicking into high gear (even if it is a little misguided because it doesn’t have enough information) helps put my patients a little more at ease.

“continued use despite adverse consequences.”

Both “Am I going to get eaten by a lion?” and “Is my scientific theory going to hold up?” register in roughly the same way in our brains, leading to a particular feeling: an urgency to act.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.