Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present (The Path to Calm Book 1)

by Nick Trenton

Wrong—anxiety is a physiological, mental, psychological, social, and even spiritual phenomenon. There is no aspect of life that anxious overthinking doesn’t impact. When you perceive a threat, your HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenals) is stimulated. Your brain triggers a cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones in the body, which then have physical effects—this is the classic fight-or-flight response to prepare the body to survive the perceived threat. Karin et. al. (2020) have published a paper outlining how the HPA system, when dysregulated, can form the bedrock of several related psychiatric conditions. Also, that’s without mentioning the direct physiological effects of prolonged stress. From a systems standpoint, stress is a complex phenomenon that encompasses everything from the health and function of our endocrine glands and organs, to our adaptive behaviors, to our subjective experiences of our mood, and to the broader world we’re a part of.