Overcoming social anxiety or overcoming the fear of driving both requires activating a threat detector in the brain called the amygdala. Fortunately, the brain can change due to neuroplasticity and it is for this reason that enables people to stop anxiety and rewire their anxious brain. Â
Dr Catherine Pittman, co-author of "Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic and Worry" shares her research on how to overcome anxiety along with the paths to anxiety, such as the amygdala and the cortex. Her book is recommended by therapists and it has over 2700 reviews.
Catherine M. Pittman, PhD, is an associate professor at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. as a licensed clinical psychologist that specializes in the treatment of brain injuries and anxiety disorders.
She is a member of the Anxiety
and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and provides workshops and seminars on the topics of anxiety and stress.
In this interview she speaks about the two pathways to anxiety and how to use the language of the amygdala to reduce anxiety. She also teaches how exposure therapy works for reducing the anxiety response associated to psychological triggers.
During this talk she mentions a woman that would get anxiety as soon as she got behind the steering wheel of a car. To cure her of this driving anxiety, the solution was to have her sit in the car while noticing that it can be a safe experience. Just sitting in this calm state of being while being in the car, which was previously associated to the fear/flight/fight response, began to change after several minutes.
After a few sessions like this, she was able to overcome anxiety of driving and was driving cars again.
This is why if you want to rewire the brain, it's imperative that the problem state is briefly activated and confronted first.
One of the ways to check if you are overly anxious is to answer these questions and see how you do.
Have you spent time worrying that something would happen when it didn’t occur?
Have you assumed someone was disappointed in you, when they were not?
Do you trust your worries and assumptions as accurate indicators of reality?
Do you take your failure fears that as accurate and believe success is unlikely?
Do you anticipate criticism that never occurs?
Do images of potential difficulties prevent you from taking actions?
Rewire Your Anxious Brain
Recommendations:
Some of the ways to rewire your anxious brain that is mentioned in this talk are:
- Yoga for anxiety is a method mentioned for calming down the amygdala.
- Deep breathing exercises
- Meditation for anxiety (7 minute meditations are worth checking out)
- Exposure Therapy
If you are looking for online therapy to get rid of anxiety or overcome fear visit https://reprogrammingmind.com/therapy to match with the right licensed therapist for your needs.
Also for a discount be sure to apply code 'CARE' to start your therapy with 30% off.
To try online therapy, click here.
