In this article we will talk about the chemistry of anxiety or how it works, we will make a small journey, from observing a dangerous stimulus to the subsequent increase of lymphocytes.
Because of its impact and the suffering it exerts on the population, it is necessary to know how anxiety works and how it starts, in order to carry out an adequate prevention work.
- For you and those around you.
- Knowing how anxiety works can help us avoid catastrophic thoughts.
- Reduce behavioral responses.
- And manage emotions flowing from or associated with them.
Many experts treat stress and anxiety as synonymous, although the burden of prejudice in mental health today is based on anxiety.
They are closely related to the alarm response. However, anxiety should not be understood in terms of correct or incorrect, but functional or not.
When people feel anxious or afraid of a stimulus and are ready to attack or flee, in many cases this activation functioned as a stimulus.
This mechanism has existed for centuries, so much so that it has given rise to our survival, without it we would not be able to act quickly, make decisions and rely on the benefits of anxiety, by changing our body to, for example, better to see the contours of objects.
The problem occurs when a person reacts with an alarm response or anxiety to stimuli that are not a threat.
In this way, the person prepares his body to flee or fight, even if it is not necessary, precisely, is at the origin of the strange sensations that we feel when nervousness suffocates us.
When detecting a threatening stimulus, the person often has an orientation response to that stimulus, allowing them to look, see, calculate, may adopt a reaction in seconds, such as fighting or fleeing.
Although people are no longer persecuted by lions, this also applies to any stimulus that the person perceives as a threat.
In this sense, it can be a simple commentary or a noise of indeterminate origin, the only thing necessary is for the subject to understand what happened as a threat to him.
From orientation to stimulus, the body’s chemistry begins to change, leading to anxiety chemistry. In the sympathetic nervous system, does activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis occur with the resulting release of ACTH?
The release of this hormone is regulated by the hypothalamus, region involved in food regulation, water intake, mating and aggression; therefore, it goes without saying that it also appears in the neurohormonal mechanisms of the alarm response, specifically stimulating the pituitary gland to Release ACTH.
The hormone ACTH stimulates the adrenal glands to release glucocorticoids into the blood.
Glucocorticoids are necessary for the individual to withstand stressful situations, can these situations vary, from physical injuries to a broken leg or falling tree, to situations of anxiety, fear, fasting?
Glucocorticoids stimulate the synthesis of adrenaline and endogenous opioid peptides. Are they involved in homeostasis – maintenance of body balance -, pain regulation, cardiovascular control and stress.
The release of adrenaline and other hormones causes an alteration of bodily functions that can be a drag at this time of anxiety, stress or escape, such as digestion, which consumes a lot of energy.
Therefore, if after an anxiety attack we feel a strange stomach or feel little like eating, it is advisable to be patient and let the body re-manage its own functions.
In the case of opiates, they are released to better tolerate pain in case of injury, for which the body is prepared.
This hormonal activation involves countless changes, not just the variables to which we usually stick, the person experiences many internal changes that are not perceived from the outside or that are marked directly in a certain way.
After the action of hormones, the heart rate increases to facilitate the pumping of blood and oxygen is rapidly distributed throughout the body, this is very characteristic of anxiety and is one of the results of this process that most annoys the person.
Among the techniques psychologists use to reduce this activation are controlled breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, both techniques include breathing as a way to reduce anxiety, reducing heart rate as we unconsciously (deliberately) increase.
In addition, the spleen contracts with the consecutive release of red blood cells. Is it helpful in case of injury?Remember that the original anxiety response is nothing more than an alarm response to a danger?Or if there’s an infection.
Red blood cells are part of our immune system: they protect us from possible infections.
In addition, sugar is synthesized and released by the liver, while increasing breathing capacity and bronchial dilation, optimizing lung performance in the face of increased oxygen demand.
In addition, pupils expand, because when more light enters, the contours of objects are better defined and eventually, in the face of possible danger, increase blood clotting and lymphocytic circulation.
For all of the above, while the chemistry of anxiety is specific to the intended purpose, so are the chemistry of relaxation and the mechanisms that activate it. In fact, the main focus of relaxation techniques is related to the parasympathetic nervous system.
While the friendly branch leads to the above-mentioned activation, the parasympathetic branch decreases muscle tone and slows breathing; in addition, it increases arterial vasodilation, increasing peripheral irrigation.
It also decreases breathing rate, adrenaline and norepinephrine secretion by the adrenal glands, as well as basal metabolism.
The key to reducing anxiety is one fact: sympathetic and parasympathetic systems cannot be activated at the same time, so the secret is to disable the sympathetic branch to activate the parasympathetic branch using relaxation and breathing techniques.
Therefore, anxiety has a remarkable biological and physiological basis. The body helps and prepares for what can happen. On the other hand, we have learned that anxiety chemistry is based on what the person thinks is dangerous or not.
Anxiety is not bad, on the contrary, or at least the physiological mechanisms that allow the response of anxiety, this can be a problem when all stimuli, dangerous or not, trigger this anxiety reaction.
The body is preparing for something that won’t happen: it’s like stepping on the accelerator pedal without allowing the car to increase its speed. Unnecessary wear and tear.