Living with Anxiety: Is It Possible to Rewire the Brain?
By Space Coast Daily // February 25, 2024
Anxiety is something that virtually everyone experiences from time to time. It is only natural that you might be anxious about something if you feel threatened. Some individuals develop a baseline of anxiety that is not related to anything specific, though.
If you reach this point, then anxiety treatment might be necessary. If you feel anxious all the time, you are not going to lead a very happy life, and you may have a tough time in your relationships with those around you as well.
Some individuals with anxiety have wondered whether it is possible to actually rewire the brain so they don’t feel so anxious anymore. Let us talk about what the medical community has to say on the subject.
Can You Rewire Your Brain?
The brain deals with feelings of anxiety. There is a natural process through which individuals learn to cope with feelings of anxiousness they experience in daily life.
Anxiety can become chronic, though. When that happens, your amygdala, where anxiety is processed, can learn to activate stress hormones more easily. This often happens without you being the least bit aware of it.
Many doctors contend that you can rewire the brain and learn to have a different reaction to anxiety-producing stressors you might encounter. To get to that point, you must begin cognitive behavioral therapy. The object of the therapy, in this case, will be to literally rewire your brain so that you will have a different and less extreme reaction to stress when you encounter it.
Other Options Besides Rewiring the Brain if You Want to Reduce Your Anxiety
Let’s say you don’t use cognitive behavioral therapy to rewire your brain, but you feel you have a high baseline of stress that leads to anxiety. You do have some other options open to you.
For instance, meditation can lead you to be less stressed and anxious. The process of breathing deeply when you meditate and calming yourself down can translate to you using these same deep breathing techniques if you’re feeling overly anxious while going about your day.
Some individuals find other activities equally helpful in this regard, like martial arts or yoga. When you train yourself to be more mindful, you will feel more centered and in control if something in your daily life causes you excessive amounts of stress.
What is the Best Option for You if You’re an Anxious Person?
If you feel that you’re too anxious and would like to make a change, you can usually do that if you’re persistent and work at it. The first step is figuring out which of the techniques we’ve mentioned is going to produce the best result.
Signing up for some cognitive behavioral therapy with a qualified mental health professional could be your best bet. It’s a logical place to start since it has been proven to work in many cases.
If you find that’s not working as well as you’d like, you can always try some of the other techniques we mentioned.
