Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 222 posts

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#11

Post by scruple »

xyzelement wrote: post #9
NayamAmarshe wrote: post #5

It's always fear, isn't it? We're afraid to approach people, afraid to ask for help, afraid that someone might react in the worst possible way or something really bad might happen. But obviously, it never happens the way we imagine. Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination and yet, many of us still fail to remember that. Every good opportunity that I ever got, was from me coming out of my comfort z…

Spot on. This hit me a few weeks ago when I was considering a long workout class ln Peloton. I was hesitant to hit the start button because it was late, I was tired, etc. Then I realized that it was genuinely harder to hit play than to actually do the class. Literally I've done thousands of workouts and have never regretted one, yet every time there's this negotiation to not do it. I am connecting that to your "reali…

It's sort of a meme but I experience this pretty frequently with running. I've been a distance runner for over 30 years now but when I have a long run and I wake up and I'm just not feeling it, I will stare at my running shoes with pure hatred for a while before finding the courage to lace up and move. It's always the right decision, I always feel incredible once I get going, but it's sometimes very hard to summon the motivation at the onset.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#12

Post by hackerlight »

NayamAmarshe wrote: post #5

It's always fear, isn't it? We're afraid to approach people, afraid to ask for help, afraid that someone might react in the worst possible way or something really bad might happen. But obviously, it never happens the way we imagine. Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination and yet, many of us still fail to remember that. Every good opportunity that I ever got, was from me coming out of my comfort z…

Anxiety is maladapted for the modern world. Everyday situations in our ancestral past were legitimately dangerous so in that context it paid to be excessively cautious.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#13

Post by impulser_ »

So from my understanding. Anxious people are so anxious that they overload the part of the brain that typical deals with anxiety so the brain routes it to another part of the brain to deal with it and that part of the brain isn't what you want dealing with it so it cause problems.

So the key is too limit overloading the part of the brain that deals with anxiety, which probably means doing things you are fearing to do so that you no longer fear doing it.

I could be wrong, but that my understanding of it.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#14

Post by bytefactory »

bloopernova wrote: post #3

Fascinating study. For those who didn't read any of it: anxious people's brains use a different area when regulating emotions. Unfortunately the connection to this area may be more easily saturated during high emotional states. So, over stressed/anxious brains appear to have a different routing setup than everyone else. Very interesting find!

I'm hoping this will lead to more effective medical or non-medical interventions. Seems like major progress in our understanding.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#15

Post by sgregnt »

NayamAmarshe wrote: post #5

It's always fear, isn't it? We're afraid to approach people, afraid to ask for help, afraid that someone might react in the worst possible way or something really bad might happen. But obviously, it never happens the way we imagine. Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination and yet, many of us still fail to remember that. Every good opportunity that I ever got, was from me coming out of my comfort z…

> "Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination" A bit of a hyperbole: 100%? So never ever we can predict reality? I think, if we focus on the core details, we are better than always wrong, perhaps even much better.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#16

Post by jh00ker »

xyzelement wrote: post #9
NayamAmarshe wrote: post #5

It's always fear, isn't it? We're afraid to approach people, afraid to ask for help, afraid that someone might react in the worst possible way or something really bad might happen. But obviously, it never happens the way we imagine. Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination and yet, many of us still fail to remember that. Every good opportunity that I ever got, was from me coming out of my comfort z…

Spot on. This hit me a few weeks ago when I was considering a long workout class ln Peloton. I was hesitant to hit the start button because it was late, I was tired, etc. Then I realized that it was genuinely harder to hit play than to actually do the class. Literally I've done thousands of workouts and have never regretted one, yet every time there's this negotiation to not do it. I am connecting that to your "reali…

This book by David Burns [1] taught me that ACTION comes first, AND THEN motivation arrives. If you lay there and wait to be motivated, it will never happen. Specifically:

1. Action

2. Results

3. Motivation

4. Repeat!

Anti-pattern:

1. Motivation

2. Action

3. Results

4. Does not work

When I notice myself using self-talk like "ugh, I just don't feel like it" I thing of A-R-M and it helps.

1: https://amzn.to/3shnZlg

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#17

Post by NayamAmarshe »

sgregnt wrote: post #15
NayamAmarshe wrote: post #5

It's always fear, isn't it? We're afraid to approach people, afraid to ask for help, afraid that someone might react in the worst possible way or something really bad might happen. But obviously, it never happens the way we imagine. Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination and yet, many of us still fail to remember that. Every good opportunity that I ever got, was from me coming out of my comfort z…

> "Reality is 100% of the time, different from our imagination" A bit of a hyperbole: 100%? So never ever we can predict reality? I think, if we focus on the core details, we are better than always wrong, perhaps even much better.

That's what I meant. Even if you imagine a scenario you can successfully predict (a cashier handing you your change, for example), how it plays out in experience is always different.

Anxiety causes you to imagine how a scenario would play out, in detail. Flashes of things going wrong, something breaking apart and all the terrible things that a horror movie director could imagine.

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#19

Post by abarkasxa »

have agoraphobia pretty bad. I've spent so much time trying to work on exposure, but then I'll have a huge panic attack, I don't have access to my frontal cortex to reason through it, during this time I'm feeling the immensity of the universe, I feel electricity running through my body, at the end of it all when I get somewhere "safe" I'm not able to think straight or sleep well for months. So yeah the impulse to avoid those feelings is pretty strong. I'll push myself once again in the future but the risk reward ratio is pretty bad. Thanks brain wiring!

Re: Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation

#20

Post by NayamAmarshe »

jh00ker wrote: post #16
xyzelement wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. This hit me a few weeks ago when I was considering a long workout class ln Peloton. I was hesitant to hit the start button because it was late, I was tired, etc. Then I realized that it was genuinely harder to hit play than to actually do the class. Literally I've done thousands of workouts and have never regretted one, yet every time there's this negotiation to not do it. I am connecting that to your "reali…

This book by David Burns [1] taught me that ACTION comes first, AND THEN motivation arrives. If you lay there and wait to be motivated, it will never happen. Specifically: 1. Action 2. Results 3. Motivation 4. Repeat! Anti-pattern: 1. Motivation 2. Action 3. Results 4. Does not work When I notice myself using self-talk like "ugh, I just don't feel like it" I thing of A-R-M and it helps. 1: https://amzn.to/3shnZlg

Some days you have to find motivation and some days motivation finds you.

Either way, it's because of your actions.

Post reply on HN