Anxiety disorders are very real. And can be crippling. But some anxiety is also evolutionarily advantageous. (via OnPointRadio)
a mom of four in Davie, Florida.DANA CHUDY: Probably as far back as I can remember. Kindergarten, maybe. I just remember being worried all the time.CHUDY: Was I going to get in trouble for some little tiny thing? Was that kid next to me actually going to drink the glue as he promised to do? I remember just being terrified to go to gym class to the point where I would quote, forget my gym clothes at home. I would, you know, pretend to not be feeling well.
CHUDY: I understand why someone who has not experienced anxiety could say, but look where this got you, because I was successful academically. But the internal struggle that puts you through is not worth it. And I think your listener Dana really, you know, expresses some of those kinds of anxieties. It's we're sending ourselves into the future. We're using our amazing ability to imagine what's coming around the bend. And what we see there is that something bad could happen. But when you're anxious, what science has shown us is that you also believe that a good outcome is still possible, so you're not despairing.
So on the spectrum, we actually have these positive experiences. And if you actually just swap in the world excited instead of anxious, all of a sudden your mindset about this feeling starts to change and you can start to say, oh, actually anxiety is feeling bad because it's making me sit up and pay attention, taking time out of my day. To really focus on what I need to plan for and what actions I might need to take and when.
The interesting thing about stress, though, is that it can be both, you know, positive and negative. And under that umbrella, we experience all the emotions. So if I'm anticipating my upcoming wedding, I feel stressed about it because there's a lot of planning to doing. There's so many things to do, but there's a lot of joy. Maybe there's nervousness, maybe there's frustration. So also emotions live under this umbrella of stress.
ATKINS STOHR: How should we be thinking differently about anxiety ... knowing the difference between those two things when we feel that emotion inside of us? Should we think about it differently? ATKINS STOHR: Back in her twenties, Lenette regularly struggled to arrive at work on time. Her boss told her that if she wants to keep her job, she should seek help. Lenette saw a therapist who helped her understand how big a problem her drinking had become. That's when she joined a 12-step program. Those meetings were terrifying.
ATKINS STOHR: Lenette, who's now in her fifties, has been sober for three decades. So what did that experience teach her about how to make use of her anxiety? So with the fight or flight response, the threat detection and response system of our brains on high alert, the vigilance, all of that is happening and it's preparing us to protect ourselves.
ATKINS STOHR: Well, I want to add another voice to this conversation. Joining us now is Marc Brackett. He's the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Studies Center at the Yale School of Medicine. Marc, welcome to On Point.ATKINS STOHR: So I want you first to talk about this idea of good anxiety and how you've experienced that yourself and just sort of reacting to our conversation so far.
ATKINS STOHR: And use our feelings wisely. I think that is a key here. So how do we keep it in perspective? Meaning, how do we keep from making this anxiety about what's out of our control and what's this uncertainty about the future feel bigger than it is? You know, if in the face of some sort of challenge.
DENNIS-TIWARY: It's an eye opener, and I agree wholeheartedly with Marc as well. And, you know, we have these heartbreaking, horrible things. That happened to us in life and anxiety is going to be inevitable. So we actually have no choice but to build skills in as Marc says, as you know, using it as information and figuring out how to, you know, how to funnel it, how to channel it into something useful. I think, you know, I think about this process and it is a skill building process.
ATKINS STOHR: I know a lot of our listeners are probably seeing anxiety in their children. What should they be doing to help them or others loved ones themselves deal with anxiety, particularly children? You know, how do you give them the tools? So, for example, when I was highly anxious in the beginning of the pandemic and decided, you know, probably my entire team is anxious, so I might as well just be transparent about it, you know, and then share what I'm doing about it. So as Tracy said, I used to say, you know, I'm not letting myself just go down that rabbit hole. I'm taking my walks every day, you know, not watching the news that's going to make my brain just go out of control.
ATKINS STOHR: Marc, I want you to react to that story and also tell us about the work that you're doing with your students. ATKINS STOHR: And, Tracy, I want to talk to you, too, because it's not just young people and children that we have to be able to talk to, but also other adults sometimes. And that can be hard too. I know when I feel anxious, it's often very difficult to talk about because among other things, I'm not sure that somebody else could possibly understand the way that I'm feeling.
ATKINS STOHR: So, Tracy, you hit on this a little bit earlier about how to cope with these feelings, how to use them with the three L's. Can you talk a little bit more about that and the 2013 study that looked into how to make that mindset shift? They then, when they observe them doing the speech, their performance was better. So they were more confident, they had fewer ums and their biology had changed. Their heart rates were lower and their blood pressure was lower. And so from just this micro intervention, what you see is that by expecting different things or interpreting and having a different mindset about our anxiety, we can change even on the biological level and start to gain those skills to leverage it to our advantage.
There's the cognitive strategies. There's the mindfulness strategies. There's the social support strategies. There's the exercise strategies. And one of the things that we feel very strongly about. We call these different buckets of strategies is ensuring that children and adults have lots of strategies in the different buckets because the way we can handle our feelings well will vary.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
Captain America Vs Captain America In Marvel Comics May 2023 SolicitsSteve Rogers is pitted against Sam Wilson in a Captain America Vs Captain America grudge match that has been building in Cold War from Marvel Comics.
Baca lebih lajut »
Why trans people in rural America struggle to find healthcare'Medical communities across the country are seeing clearly that there is a knowledge gap in the provision of gender-affirming care.'
Baca lebih lajut »
Why Mitt Romney says US support of Ukraine is good for AmericaSen. Mitt Romney says if Americans say the United States should not spend money to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia, they should probably say the U.S. shouldn't spend money on its own national defense either.
Baca lebih lajut »
Gov. Greg Abbott: Biden administration will 'spur' more border crossingsTexas Gov. Greg Abbott breaks down why he believes the Biden administration's policies will worsen America's illegal immigration crisis on 'Your World.'
Baca lebih lajut »
How AI Is Detecting Heart Attack Risk and Aiming to Outsmart America's No. 1 KillerThe AI-based health startup backed by Peter Thiel and Novartis can diagnose heart attack risk in under two hours.
Baca lebih lajut »