In Part 1, I talked about my own personal journey with anxiety and anxiety treatment and how the brain works. I want to give an example of this – a situation many of us are familiar with.

A Workplace Example of How Anxiety Works in the Brain

You’re at work, plugging along when Ding! Your email chimes – your boss says “Can we talk?” The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the part of your brain that can logically see why that email could mean many things – maybe she wants to talk about the awesome project you just finished or about the implementation of the company policy of the four day work week but if you’re like me, your limbic system is the only voice you can hear and it’s a sinking in your gut that’s saying “YOU’RE GOING TO GET FIRED.” 

Logic (Cortex) vs. Anxiety (Limbic System)

Even though you might have the logic all lined up to show all the evidence of why that’s not going to happen, presenting that logic probably won’t make the anxiety stop. This is because these are two different parts of your brain operating on two different systems – you can’t solely address the prefrontal cortex and expect the limbic system to get on board. You have to address the emotional part of your brain in order to get the emotional alarm system to turn off. And that emotional alarm system will never, ever respond to pure logic. It laughs in that general direction. 

How to Deal with the Limbic System aka the Emotional Alarm

So how do you turn that limbic system alarm off? Great question. How I wish there was a concrete, one-size-fits-all answer but alas, here is my more vague answer – you have to connect to yourself emotionally, you have to feel your feelings. You can’t fully rely on the PFC and stay in logic-land.

You have to also travel through the feelings (I also recommend a healthy dose of self-compassion). With that email from your boss – instead of saying to yourself “Just stop worrying about it! I’m sure everything will be fine!” (bypassing feelings entirely) or “Clearly I’m a garbage employee who will be fired” (skipping to the worst case scenario and only dwelling in emotional brain) you want to use the emotional brain and the logical brain together which might sound something like this:

“Wow, that email from my boss is really bringing up a fear response. It makes sense because this job means a lot to me and it’s how I pay my bills and support myself and my pets and I don’t want to lose it. It’s okay to feel the fear and imagine the worst case scenario for a moment. It’s also okay to imagine a scenario that is about something totally benign like it was last time my boss said we needed to talk. Caring about my job and fearing losing it is a totally normal reaction. Fear is a part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment.”

In this response, you combine your feeling brain and your logical brain and meet yourself where you are. It might even be the way you would talk to a beloved friend. 

If you struggle to apply this integration of both parts of your brain (and self-compassion!) seamlessly tomorrow, you are not alone. This is advanced stuff. It could be helpful to work with a therapist on navigating anxiety and building self-compassion.

Need Some Help with that Relentless Emotional Alarm?

Here at ETG, we offer really great anxiety therapy services that utilize information, like what I’ve shared here about the brain, in combination with other useful therapy approaches. Our staff is well trained in a variety of modalities and can tailor their approach to your care based on your anxiety symptoms and needs. Get in touch to learn more. 

Elizabeth Baum, MA, LPC (Temp), is a Pre-Licensed Staff Therapist at Experience Therapy Group working with adults, teens and couples. For more content about the intersection of life and therapy, you can find Elizabeth at @therapy.adjacent.

References 

• Shapiro, J (2021). Two Parts of the Brain Govern Much of Mental Life. Psychology Today. 
• Neff, K (2015). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. William Morrow.