The subtle thing that fuels anxiety - Avoidance - Break the Anxiety Cycle in 30 Days 4/30

Summary

This video explores the anxiety cycle caused by avoidance, explaining how people often avoid confronting their fears, which in turn exacerbates anxiety. It highlights how chronic avoidance creates a loop, making the anxiety feel more intense and harder to break. Through examples and strategies, the video offers solutions, such as understanding your nervous system, limiting media consumption, and taking small, actionable steps to face your fears. By recognizing and confronting avoidance behaviors, individuals can reduce their anxiety over time and regain control of their lives.

Takeaways

• 😀 Avoidance behaviors increase anxiety by keeping the brain in a heightened state of stress without offering opportunities for resolution.
• 😀 Our nervous systems are wired to respond to physical threats, but modern life often prevents us from taking action to resolve those threats, leading to chronic anxiety.
• 😀 Technology, especially social media and the news, amplifies perceived threats, triggering the body's fight/flight/freeze response without a physical resolution.
• 😀 Although the world may be safer in terms of physical dangers, the constant exposure to emotional or psychological threats through media keeps the nervous system in a state of stress.
• 😀 Anxiety is often a response to perceived danger that we can’t act on, making us feel stuck in cycles of avoidance and increasing the tension in the body.
• 😀 Facing emotional discomfort and avoiding avoidance is crucial to breaking the anxiety cycle. Processing feelings rather than escaping them reduces long-term anxiety.
• 😀 Avoidance manifests in subtle ways, such as procrastination, withdrawing from social interactions, or numbing out through technology, all of which maintain the anxiety loop.
• 😀 Confronting anxiety directly, rather than avoiding it, allows individuals to gradually reduce the anxiety response over time.
• 😀 The more you understand your patterns of avoidance and how they contribute to your anxiety, the more confident you become at confronting your feelings and triggers.
• 😀 The workbook and live Q&A sessions in the online course provide practical tools to explore and confront avoidance behaviors, helping individuals break the anxiety cycle.

Q & A

What is the primary cause of chronic anxiety according to the video?

The primary cause of chronic anxiety is the failure to close the loop on perceived danger. People often avoid confronting the danger or threat, which leads to upregulation of anxiety as the brain believes the threat is still present.

How does avoidance impact our anxiety levels over time?

Avoidance provides short-term relief but increases anxiety in the long run. Each time we avoid something that triggers anxiety and survive, our brain makes us more anxious in the future to avoid that perceived threat again.

Why are humans particularly skilled at avoidance and imagining danger?

Humans are skilled at imagining potential threats, even those that aren’t real, as a survival mechanism. This helps prevent future problems but keeps us stuck in a state of constant anxiety without taking action to resolve the perceived dangers.

How does modern technology contribute to anxiety?

Modern technology, especially through news and social media, exposes us to a constant stream of perceived dangers, many of which are not physical threats we can take action against. This increases our anxiety because our brains are triggered by danger, but we can't resolve it physically.

What role does the polyvagal ladder play in understanding anxiety?

The polyvagal ladder helps explain the body's response to stress. Anxiety is described as a state between fight/flight/freeze and complete shutdown. It's a 'cold' response that immobilizes us rather than provoking action.

What is a common example of avoidance leading to increased anxiety?

A common example is someone who experiences a panic attack in a public place, like a supermarket, and avoids going back. While initially it brings relief, over time the avoidance leads to more anxiety, which can escalate to other forms of avoidance, like not leaving the house.

Why do people feel more anxious despite the world being safer than ever?

The world is statistically safer than in the past, but the constant exposure to perceived dangers through modern media makes people feel like it's more dangerous. This constant barrage of fearful news activates the fight/flight/freeze response without any physical action to resolve it.

What can individuals do to reduce their exposure to anxiety-inducing media?

Individuals can limit their exposure to news and social media, particularly toxic content. It's important to be intentional about when, where, and what you watch or engage with. Adding in good news and positive sources can help balance out the constant negativity.

What is one effective way to address anxiety triggered by work or school challenges?

Instead of avoiding the anxiety caused by challenges at work or school, it's important to sit with the anxiety, acknowledge it, and then take practical actions. This helps the brain understand that the anxiety is manageable and that safety can be restored.

What is the connection between physical tasks and reducing anxiety?

Engaging in physical tasks helps resolve anxiety because they provide tangible solutions. Completing physical tasks offers a sense of accomplishment and closure, which can calm the nervous system and decrease the feeling of threat.