A mindful look at anxiety - escaping the worry habit loop
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Although the Covid pandemic has thankfully passed, we continue to learn a lot about its toll on virtually every country around the world. The pandemic came with a shared sense of helplessness and fear. It shone a light on mental health as anxiety levels spiked. But even before Covid, anxiety was on the rise, and many people will continue to struggle with it in the future.
Of course, anxiety is a spectrum, with those on the mild end experiencing it in passing, and those on the severe end being debilitated by it. Until recently, doctors and therapists relied on tools such as medications and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help patients manage anxiety. This was the case for Dr. Jud Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher at Yale and Brown universities, who uses these tools in his own practice. But he has also successfully incorporated mindfulness into his work.
Brewer specializes in the area of habit formation and addiction, and sees anxiety as falling into the same category. He suggests that any habit has three main components - a trigger, a behaviour and a reward. Through his work on addiction he has learned that our 'craving minds' engage in habit loops when triggered by a difficult emotion (like fear or sadness or guilt). These loops are negative behaviours - like reaching for alcohol or junk food - that give us a temporary reward, which is relief from dealing with tough emotions. Over time, we can't seem to escape these habit loops in the hope of not experiencing discomfort or pain. At some point, we might realize that these behaviours are self-sabotaging and are not solving anything, but by then we feel stuck, unable to move to healthier habits.
In his book Unwinding Anxiety, Brewer outlines how anxiety can be seen as a habit loop - a negative behaviour we engage in when we are triggered by an underlying feeling. We might think that if we just worry enough, research enough, plan enough then maybe we can get rid of emotions like helplessness, fear, sadness, or loneliness.
A lot of anxiety is about trying to control our circumstances so that things work out as we hope. But of course given how little we can actually control in life, this becomes a futile exercise. We may get some short term relief through active worry, which fools us into thinking we are doing something. But rarely does that worry actually change the outcome. Planning, when done constructively, can be useful, but worry almost never is. And yet, we get paralyzed by chronic anxiety which is exhausting, detrimental to our health, and impedes our ability to be present for our lives.
So what can we do? Brewer suggests that when we experience a negative emotion, instead of jumping straight to our knee jerk anxiety behaviours, we can pause and redirect our attention to our bodies. Many feelings start as a bodily sensations - tightness in the chest or neck, feeling sick to our stomachs, headaches, loss or increase of appetite, sweaty palms. By focusing on these sensations, we give our brains a break from spiralling into a rabbit hole of overthinking which only exacerbates our anxiety.
As we soothe our physical restlessness and agitation, we can get curious and notice the calmer sensations that arise, that feel much better than obsessive worry. Instead of trying to control situations, seek constant reassurance or engage in compulsive patterns, we can instead choose what Brewer calls the BBO - the bigger, better offer. BBOs can include positive feelings like acceptance, gratitude, and curiosity. And we can slowly let go of the emotions that triggered our anxiety in the first place. We can then take wise action or perhaps see more clearly that no action is needed, allowing us to simply move on.
Ofcourse the hardest part is converting what we know about anxiety into practice. This is where I have found Brewer's approach to be very practical, achievable and empowering. If you want to learn more about Brewer's work you can go to https://drjud.com
So perhaps the next time you find yourself experiencing anxiety, try Dr. Brewer's approach, bring mindful attention to your body, pause and breathe. Examine the opportunity cost and harm that your anxiety habit might be causing you and others, and choose a BBO instead - a bigger, better offer that works for you and serves you in moving forward with your life.
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