Trapped with Anxiety and Worry - The Upward Spiral

THRIVE NOTES - Summarising Books on Wellbeing

Welcome to THRIVE NOTES, a series of articles where we’ll be summarising the key points of a range of chapters from self-help, wellbeing, and science-backed books. While we recommend that you pick up the book yourself (and each book that we cover will also be added to our Wellbeing Pit Stop in Senate House), we hope that these articles will offer you some guidance through the book’s key information and encourage you to pick it up for yourself!

What’s the Book About:

The Upward Spiral, written by neuroscientist Alex Korb, explains how downward and upward spirals work, through hormones and neural systems in the brain. Korb then guides us on starting those upward spirals that can move us closer to getting out of periods of depression, unlike downward spirals, which tend to keep us feeling hopeless, helpless, and stuck.

Summary of the Chapter: Anxiety and Worry

Worrying and anxiety can be significant symptoms of depression, but they are also occur due to how our brains have evolved. Worrying is processed by the brain’s prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate. While, anxiety is processed via the circuits in the limbic system.

What is Worrying?

Worrying helps us plan ahead and problem solve, while anxiety helps to keep us out of danger. It’s when we’re doing too much of either that causes problems to arise.

Having too many choices can makes us worry more, it causes the amygdala to become reactive. We can reduce worry by reducing our options. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is heavily involved in planning, while the medial prefrontal cortex connects with emotional amygdala and helps us make decisions on how our choices will make us feel.

Planning becomes worrying when our emotions become more and more negative regarding the future. The medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate will be reacting more when we’re worrying.

What about Anxiety?

Feeling in control of a situation can help calm down our limbic system, reducing anxiety, worry, and pain. Strengthening our dorsolateral prefrontal cortex can move us up and out of a downward spiral and into an upward one. This can be done by understanding what you actually have control of, as opposed to trying to change what you can’t.

While fear is a response to danger, anxiety is response to possible danger – events that aren’t happening, but maybe could. Fear activates the body’s stress point – you’ve likely heard of our fight-or-flight response. The amygdala recognises danger, and then then hypothalamus activates that fight-or-flight response. This then triggers the release of stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol.

Perfection isn’t the Answer

We can become more depressed by trying to be right or perfect or flawless all the time. It just makes us unhappy. Start with good enough. You don’t need to do more than that.

Korb describes the limbic system is a “trend-spotter” and “pattern-finder”, while the prefrontal cortex helps us try to solve complex problems. The limbic system can help us avoid difficult circumstances, as the limbic system will connect the bad experience we’re having with a recent memory that could have predicted it.

While both worrying and anxiety are necessary processes, too much can make us unhappy. This happens when these circuits are activated too frequently. But, by being aware and slowing down, we can combat the frequency in which anxiety and worry occur.

The ABCs

Korb has come up with these “ABCs” to keep in mind when anxiety and worry come about.

“A” is for “alarm”. This is when we notice that something seems wrong. This is usually mediated by the anterior cingulate (this controls our attention), the amygdala (is primed to detect threatening situations), or the hippocampus (can notice similarities between situations).

“B” is for “belief”. Now, we’re creating a belief about why the alarm has been triggered. It’s not on purpose; it tends to be subconscious. Our limbic system is for our unconscious beliefs, while our ventromedial prefrontal cortex is for our conscious ones. Our beliefs will then guide our behaviour.

Finally, “C” is for “coping”. This is what we do next. Do we take a moment to breathe and slow down? Or do we jump into action and freak out? Coping helps us feel in control, even if we make unhelpful decisions when it comes to how we cope.

How to Cope when Overwhelmed

So, how can we cope better?  By being aware of our emotional state. Our amygdala becomes activated when we’re feeling emotional. But, activating our prefrontal cortex can help calm down our amygdala, which is within our limbic system. This happens when we stop and recognise our emotions. Recognising is the first step to reducing. The more often we take a moment to recognise what we’re feeling, the more neural pathways we create that will lead to being better able to calm down.

Communicating how we feel (even just to ourselves) and trying to focus on the present moment are both great ways to help reduce anxiety and worry. We want to practice nonjudgemental awareness. There’s no good or bad, you’re just feeling what you feel. And the more we practice mindfulness, the better we get at it.