So one of the other primary emotions that we work with clients here at Good Therapy SF is the emotion of fear or anxiety.
And one of the things we try to start helping clients understand is that anxiety or fear in and of itself is not necessarily dangerous, in fact it has a really useful survival benefit to it.
For example, if you were out hiking or maybe walking down the wrong street one day in a city, you’re going to have that kind of tingling sensation. If you look over the cliff, if you’re hiking, or if you walk In that down that wrong street, you’re gonna feel that sensation. We want you to have that reaction.
So in and of itself, fear or anxiety is not dangerous. What we always want to focus on is the interpretation or the way in which we respond to the signal of fear or anxiety that’s coming from our body and our brain. So from that perspective, it’s actually pretty useful in the right situation.
When I say the signal, usually what happens is a section of our brain, actually one in each hemisphere, they’re called the amygdala, tend to be associated with detecting or seeking out or signaling the sensation of fear. So the amygdala detects a reason to fire and it does. And then typically an oversimplification of this is the frontal lobe or the prefrontal cortex that interprets the signaling coming from the amygdala. And when the prefrontal cortex. Tends to agree with the amygdala. We tend to have a lot of anxiety about a situation. And other times when the prefrontal cortex tells our amygdala it’s fine, things are okay, dismisses the signal, then we tend not to have as much anxiety about a situation.
And that’s the difference between having anxiety that feels like unprompted and unwanted, if you’re talking in a meeting, and you’re really feeling really overwhelmed. That’s when the prefrontal cortex is agreeing with the amygdala. And other times maybe when you’re just have those kind of like pregame jitters, or you know you’re feeling nervous or anxious but you’re actually interpreting it in a good way and that you’re ready for what’s about to come. That’s really a good example when the prefrontal cortex is dismissing or reinterpreting the signal coming from the amygdala.
So that’s how it happens in our in our brain. So what we do is try to make sure that people essentially through cognitive behavioral therapy approaches and through other forms of therapy, at Good Therapy SF, we really try to help our clients interpret the signaling coming from the amygdala in a more helpful way, so that they can really have that space or that distance so that they are able to essentially respond to the way that feels more helpful or more useful in these stressful or anxiety situations.
In that way, yes, we can never turn off the anxiety or fear response, but we can always work with our, how we adapt to, or how we become interpret that, that kind of signaling and how it’s coming from from our brain. So there’s like many different ways in which we try to do this at Good Therapy SF.
One cognitive behavioral therapy way to do that is to kind of name and acknowledge the fear. So just simply identifying what is happening in the moment gives you that space and kind of gives you more awareness and uses more of that executive functioning that comes from our prefrontal cortex.
Another approach is to try to challenge are more irrational thoughts. So going a little bit deeper, not just acknowledging the fear, but then looking at it and saying, okay, just because I’m thinking this way, in what ways might my thinking be more irrational than is needed for the situation.
There’s also the opportunity to try to use fear as a motivator. So intentionally changing the response or changing the script, the way in which you talk to yourself when you feel this fear response. That’s really common with sports psychology or other types of like performance anxiety situations.
There’s also a really tried and true response with anxiety and fear, which is taking a gradual exposure response. Oftentimes we might have a fear of a certain situation, place, or type of thinking and taking it on at a 10 out of 10 level might feel too intense. So we really break it down as a Likert scale or 1 to 10. So we will break things up into 10 different individualized chunks, that actually increase in level of intensity from the least intense to most intense. And then you will gradually, in the moments, either through through visualization, or through in person, intentionally work your way up that ladder from 1 to 10. And that gradual exposure helps a lot with the sensation of anxiety or fear as well.
And then, as always, it’s always useful to add on relaxation techniques when you are experiencing the fear or anxiety to help control your body’s response in the moment. So common relaxation techniques are going to be deep breathing. And in addition to something called progressive muscle relaxation. Those can really help with anxiety moments as well.
If you have more questions or thoughts about anxiety and how we work with it at Good Therapy SF, please feel free to give us a call. Thank you.
