Page 2 - Anxiety.pdf
P. 2

Got an above-average dose of anxiety                        theorize, actually appeared in human
    in your personality? It turns out, according                consciousness because it's sometimes a

    to a new study, that it might actually give                 very good idea to feel anxious about
    you an edge when it comes to picking out                    uncertain, unsafe situations. And this
    threats and escaping them effectively. The                  latest study seems to back up the idea
    study, from the French Institute of Health                  that a little anxiety can help you make a
    and Medical Research (INSERM), looked                       speedy getaway.
    at 24 (yes, only 24) volunteers and how
    they reacted to various social threats, and                 But the science is a little more complex
    made an interesting conclusion: not only                    than just "be anxious, escape bank
    do anxious people respond very quickly,                     robbery, pass go and collect $200". It
    but their brains process threats in an                      involves facial recognition, how different

    entirely different way than non-anxious                     parts of our brain react to threats, and
    people.                                                     what "social threats" actually look like in
                                                                the real world. And it's not as
                                                                straightforward about clinical anxiety,
                                                                either. Let's dive in. Cautiously.


                                                                Why A Little Anxiety

                                                                Might Be Useful In A Crisis

                                                                The study looked at a bunch of facets of

                                                                anxiety and social threats, so we need to
                                                                unpack it a bit. The first thing the
                                                                scientists identified was what our brains
                                                                might find threatening in a social situation:
                                                                a person looking angry or terrified, while
                                                                gazing straight at us. Result: an increased
                                                                likelihood that somebody was going to do
    Anxiety has actually been linked to a                       something that might hurt us, and a
    series of positive benefits, including a                     justifiable sense of panic. But that's not
    lower likelihood of dying in a car crash                    what we're really interested in. We're after

    and higher levels of trust from other
    people (who sense you're feeling neurotic                   the next bit of the experiment: what
                                                                happened to the brains of the anxious and
    in a social situation). Anxious people are                  non-anxious volunteers when this social
    even believed to be smarter than the non-                   threat happened to them.
    anxious. But this new discovery goes to a
    deeper truth about anxiety: why it may                      It turns out that people who are a bit
    have evolved as part of human                               anxious naturally process these kinds of
     psychology. Anxiety, some psychologists                      threats in a different part of their brains




                                                            P.G. Better Living
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