Anxiety in small and infrequent doses is a natural part of our ability to cope and adjust to stressors. Everybody has experienced anxiety, usually combined with stress, at some point in their lives. Anxiety as a phenomenon for each individual lands on a spectrum of intensity and frequency which determines and contributes to their ability to cope. When anxiety occurs often, and with great intensity, we often feel unsafe, unstable and unable to cope.
Psycho-neurological research shows that there are a number of factors within the brain that contribute to the experience of anxiety. Most notably, there is a strong correlation between anxiety and brain neurotransmitter imbalance. Similar to depression, low levels of serotonin are implicated in anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Approximately eighty percent of serotonin is made in the gastro-intestinal tract (digestive tract) with the remaining twenty percent being made in the brain and body. Although it has many functions in the body, it is related to anxiety in its capacity to act as a messenger in the brain. When a neuron in the brain releases serotonin, it is released from the end of that neuron and travels across a gap before reaching and binding to the next neuron’s receptors, causing it to ‘fire’ and transmit information. If the body is unable to make enough serotonin, or the serotonin cannot effectively bind to receptors in the brain for information transmission, mood regulation is compromised. Serotonin has a major role in mood, eating behaviours and even hormonal regulation.
Studies have indicated that there are two main areas in the brain relating to anxiety and strongly correlated to serotonin transmission. These are the hippocampi and the amygdalae. The hippocampi help control emotions and contribute to memory. They seem to be implicated in how we feel about others, our surroundings and past events. Closely related to the hippocampi are the amygdalae. Each amygdala can be compared to an information processing center, where stressors and threats to our wellbeing are first registered before being sent out to the brain and body. Recent research has shown that both the hippocampi and the amygdalae are smaller on average in those suffering from anxiety disorders. Pharmaceuticals designed to increase serotonin have been shown to increase their size and function, and decrease the symptoms of anxiety. However where possible supporting the body’s natural ability to make serotonin, and heal the brain and body is a preferable alternative that should be done under the guidance and supervision of a healthcare professionl.
Treating low serotonin requires healing the gastro-intestinal tract to help the body make serotonin, while providing all the building blocks for the molecule itself. Equally important is healing the brain receptors, which can be damaged over time by toxicity, recreational drugs and nutrient deficiencies. Low serotonin often co-occurs with increased levels of norepinepherine and other excitatory molecules responsible for creating a state of arousal and trigger flight or fight. It then becomes evident that low serotonin and high norepinepherine would create feelings of anxiety.
Anxiety also has an emotional patterning component which is often created in our past at a time when we felt unsafe or experienced physical or psychological trauma. The information processing within our nervous system is like a looping circuit that gets stuck on ‘on’. We develop habits and patterns and the loop of anxiety and stress repeat and repeat over and over. The emotional basis requires healing and interrupting the looping while treating the physical components of anxiety as well.
Anxiety is very common, and it is rooted in both an imbalance in the brain chemistry, and an emotional patterning that requires healing. Treating anxiety in this way provides renewed balance and emotional stability, as well as both physical and mental well-being.
