Anxiety is like a Fire Alarm

When I work with clients who are experiencing high anxiety, I love to help them understand the physiological impact of their anxiety so they can learn to identity it, and work to manage it. I help clients discover what it is, where it comes from, how it is managed in the brain, and what it does to the body. I find that helping clients gain a clearer understanding of anxiety’s physiological impact helps them in their work to overcome it. Most of my clients meet with me in my therapy office in Yorba Linda, but telehealth video therapy has made it possible for me to work with people from all over California.

According to the American Psychological Association anxiety is “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.” Anxiety is a natural human emotion, but it can be pretty overwhelming to navigate. When helping my therapy clients work through their anxiety, I love to teach about the body’s natural fight-or-flight system and how, when activated, this system tends to take over. We know from neurobiological research and brain scans that parts of the brain become activated when we feel threatened. One part of the brain that lights up in response to perceived threat is the amygdala. An interesting note about the amygdala is that it is a very small structure of the brain, but it controls a big response! When clients meet with me in person in my Yorba Linda office, I hand them a picture of a brain and together we look at this structure. I help my clients notice that the amygdala is only about the size of a pea – yes you read that right. One of those little green vegetables we try to get kids to eat! In comparison to other parts of the brain, it is quite small. For example, the part of the brain responsible for executive functioning skills (the prefrontal cortex) is much larger than the amygdala. However, when the amygdala is activated, it tends to take over the brain and override executive functioning skills like planning, organizing, logical reasoning, or emotional regulation. When the amygdala perceives threat, it quickly mobilizes the brain and the body to take action. When the brain perceives something threatening (something stressful), the amygdala is automatically activated and sends a series of signals all throughout the body that proclaim: “Danger!" The brain does this in order to keep you safe and urge you to either fight (face whatever it is that’s threatening you), or flee (run and take cover).

When I explain this process in a therapy session, I like to compare the body’s fight-or-flight system to a fire alarm. A home’s fire alarm will make noise whenever it perceives too much smoke in a given space. If there is enough smoke, the alarm will sound. No questions asked. This is a really helpful safety mechanism to have in place when there is fire in the house! If something sets on fire, you can count on your alarm to make a loud noise, signaling that you need to grab an extinguisher, call 911, or run out of the house. This is life saving when there is a fire. However, fire alarms can also go off in response to smoke that is not dangerous. For example, if a pot boils over or a bag of microwave popcorn burns and lets off some smoke, there’s a chance the alarm will sound. Even though there is no actual danger, the alarm is now making a very loud, stressful sound. This is similar to what happens for you when you feel anxious. Like an alarm, anxiety is a physiological response to perceived threat, danger, or wellbeing. When you feel anxious, it’s like an alarm goes off inside your brain and your body. This alarm sends out stress hormones known as adrenalin and cortisol, which then sets off a series of changes in your body, whether you like it or not! When you perceive threat, your body’s natural fight-or-flight system is immediately activated and for a number of seconds, you do not have much control over your mind and body.

Similar to a smoke alarm, it’s important to figure out how to respond to an anxiety alarm when it goes off. Whether it’s a smoke alarm or an anxiety alarm, here are some things you want to do:

Recognize the alarm is sounding. Understanding your body's signals can help you decide what to do in response to a stressor. It can also help you learn how to feel less anxious or overwhelmed in the midst of stress. As a psychologist, one of the things I know is that often times people aren’t fully aware of what it looks like for them to feel anxious. They don’t necessarily make the connection between their anxiety and their symptoms. This can leave people feeling lost and overwhelmed whenever their anxiety response is activated. So one of the ways I help my clients recognize their anxiety alarm is by teaching them how to read their body’s physical cues. When anxiety is activated (whatever the reason), it sends a series of signals throughout the body. This may include increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, sweating, stomach pain, trouble concentrating, headaches, overthinking, memory issues, panic attacks, and racing thoughts. I teach my clients to recognize these symptoms as indicators they may be feeling anxious. The nice thing about this approach is that clients can pay attention to how their bodies feel whether they’re meeting with me through telehealth video therapy appointments or in my Yorba Linda therapy office. I ask Clients to close their eyes and notice where in their bodies they feel their anxiety. Is it in their stomach? Has their heart rate increased? Do their hands feel clammy or their mouth dry? Next, I empower them to begin to pay attention to these signals outside of my office. As clients grow in their ability to recognize their alarm, then we practice taking a curious approach in order to figure out why the alarm is sounding.

Determine why the alarm is sounding. Sometimes there is more than one reason why anxiety gets activated, and it can be helpful to determine why the alarm is sounding. Are you in physical real-life danger? Do you literally need to run or fight something in this moment? Is there a real fire? Or is there smoke that needs to be cleared out of the space? If there is truly a fire in the house, it is essential to safely put the fire out, or exit the house and call 911. If the alarm is sounding due to smoke, however, it may not be necessary to call 911 or to leave the house. It may be enough to open a window and air the room out. When your body’s anxiety alarm goes off, do you know how to figure out what it is that’s setting it off so that you can establish safety? When the amygdala is working right, it sends a series of stressful signals throughout the body regardless of the level of the threat. And it becomes your job to recognize that the alarm is going off, so you can then work to discern why the alarm is sounding in order to respond well. If the stressor is not life threatening, it may be helpful to first work to calm yourself down before responding to the threat itself. This is because it can be quite difficult to respond well to a stressor in your life when your anxiety level is very high. So oftentimes before making any decisions or responding to a threat, it is important to work first on lowering your anxious response in the moment. As my clients grow in their ability to recognize their anxiety alarm and determine why it is going off, I help them learn skills and techniques they can use to soothe themselves and turn off the alarm.

Turn off the alarm and address the stress. Whether a fire alarm is sounding in response to fire or smoke, in most circumstances someone needs to manually reset it in order to get the noise to stop. In order for the alarm to stop sounding, most alarms require someone to physically press a button on the alarm in order to turn it off. Even if you open a window and the smoke clears, you will still need to walk over to the alarm, stand up on a chair, and manually press the reset button. When it comes to your body’s fight-or-flight system, you need to reset it in a similar way. This can look like using grounding skills to relax and focus on the present moment, challenging anxious thoughts in order to gain a balanced perspective, or using coping skills that reduce cortisol hormones in the body.

Whether it’s a fire alarm or an anxiety alarm, the more you know about the situation, the better and more in control you’ll feel. Just like a fire alarm pays attention to smoke in order to assess for danger, when your amygdala perceives threat, it sets off an alarm throughout your body. Practically, you may notice feeling stressed, worried, keyed up, irritable, on edge, anxious, panicked, tearful, upset, fearful, or frozen. Similar to a smoke alarm, the body’s anxiety alarm doesn’t differentiate between truly life threatening situations and smaller stressors. So when this alarm gets set off, it is important to recognize it for what it is, work to figure out what it’s trying to tell you, and then decide beset how to respond. If the stressor is life threatening, you may need to take immediate or drastic action. However, if the stressor is not life threatening, it may be okay to focus first on turning off the alarm so you can make the best decision for yourself in that moment or season of life.

Fire alarms have the ability to literally save lives, which his why we need them. Anxiety also has the ability to protect us and keep us safe. We need it too. Anxiety can truly be quite helpful and also life saving. It kicks us into gear and helps us stay safe. The difficult thing, though, is that anxiety can also be debilitating. If anxiety is holding you back, stealing your joy, or causing you to regularly snap at the people you love most, chances are anxiety has gotten the best of you and the alarm is too loud. Maybe it’s even ruining your quality of life. This is when it could be helpful to talk to a therapist so that you can learn what works for you. If you’d like to talk more about your experience with anxiety and whether or not therapy could help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out for a free phone call. We’d love to talk more with you about whether or not we can help, to schedule you for an appointment in our Yorba Linda therapy office or for a telehealth video appointment, or to point you in some helpful directions based on what you’re looking for. If you’d like to talk more, send us a message or give us a call today.

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