4 days ago
183
13
Posted On: October 14th 2026, 06:59 pm
Follow @betterneuroscience for deeper insights into health and human behaviour.
Comment KIT to get The Neuroplasticity Blueprint, our 21 day system for rewiring the way your brain runs your habits. It’s currently 50% OFF.
If you live with anxiety, you have probably been told to just relax or stop overthinking. The trouble is that anxiety does not start in your thoughts. It starts in brain systems that keep your body on alert, and once you see them, a lot of your habits start to make sense.
Deep in your brainstem, the reticular formation sets how alert you are, and in anxious people it runs high. When no real threat appears, your logical brain invents one to explain the alarm in your body, which is where many worries come from. Near the amygdala, a region called the BNST helps set how long your stress response stays switched on, so your body can stay tense long after the danger is gone.
Your amygdala keeps a record of old hurts, which is why you steer away from places and people that remind you of them. The BNST also seems to handle imagined threats, the what ifs, and your insula turns them into a tight chest or a sinking stomach. When alarm takes over, your prefrontal cortex goes quiet, so a small problem looks huge and you feel too small to handle it.
Your inner critic may be tied to extra activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, part of the brain’s daydream network, which is why harsh thoughts often get louder when you rest. A quiet anterior cingulate cortex may explain why logic cannot switch off fear, and meditation has been shown to raise its activity.
None of this means you are broken. These are signs of a nervous system that learned to stay on guard, and what it learned once, it can learn again.
#neuroscience #anxiety #neuroplasticity #mentalhealth #nervoussystem
Comment KIT to get The Neuroplasticity Blueprint, our 21 day system for rewiring the way your brain runs your habits. It’s currently 50% OFF.
If you live with anxiety, you have probably been told to just relax or stop overthinking. The trouble is that anxiety does not start in your thoughts. It starts in brain systems that keep your body on alert, and once you see them, a lot of your habits start to make sense.
Deep in your brainstem, the reticular formation sets how alert you are, and in anxious people it runs high. When no real threat appears, your logical brain invents one to explain the alarm in your body, which is where many worries come from. Near the amygdala, a region called the BNST helps set how long your stress response stays switched on, so your body can stay tense long after the danger is gone.
Your amygdala keeps a record of old hurts, which is why you steer away from places and people that remind you of them. The BNST also seems to handle imagined threats, the what ifs, and your insula turns them into a tight chest or a sinking stomach. When alarm takes over, your prefrontal cortex goes quiet, so a small problem looks huge and you feel too small to handle it.
Your inner critic may be tied to extra activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, part of the brain’s daydream network, which is why harsh thoughts often get louder when you rest. A quiet anterior cingulate cortex may explain why logic cannot switch off fear, and meditation has been shown to raise its activity.
None of this means you are broken. These are signs of a nervous system that learned to stay on guard, and what it learned once, it can learn again.
#neuroscience #anxiety #neuroplasticity #mentalhealth #nervoussystem
Comments (13)
4 days agobetterneuroscience
Comment KIT to get The Neuroplasticity Blueprint, our 21 day system for rewiring the way your brain runs your habits. It's currently 50% OFF.
More posts
