Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we talk through some of the big
Speaker 1: changes and transitions of our twenties and what they mean
Speaker 1: for our psychology. Welcome back to everyone, beautiful people. Hope
Speaker 1: we're all doing well and thanks for tuning into this episode.
Speaker 1: You've read the title, we're talking about the anxious mind.
Speaker 1: Anxiety in our twenties a really psychological topic. I think
Speaker 1: we've kind of gone off the beaten track, been talking
Speaker 1: a lot about relationships and friendship and life changes recently,
Speaker 1: but we're going to jump into something a bit more
Speaker 1: clinical and a bit more biological for this week. So
Speaker 1: let's not waste any time today. We're going to jump
Speaker 1: right into what we're discussing because she's a big episode
Speaker 1: and we have a lot of content to cover so
Speaker 1: that we as a collector, as an audience, as a listener,
Speaker 1: can understand anxiety and more generally, the anxious mind. So yet,
Speaker 1: we are exploring every area of the psychology behind this
Speaker 1: topic today just in order to kind of get a
Speaker 1: good understanding of the landscape around anxiety and get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of why our brain can be really anxious
Speaker 1: at times. We're going to talk about anxiety and panic disorders,
Speaker 1: existential anxiety, social anxiety, how we can calm our minds,
Speaker 1: the science of meditation. You know, it attracts almost religious
Speaker 1: and feverish support from those who practice it, but is
Speaker 1: it fact or fiction? And how does meditation actually affect
Speaker 1: anxiety from a physiological perspective. We're also going to talk
Speaker 1: about buy a feedback and the brain body loop between
Speaker 1: the mind and body surrounding worry and anxiety, but also
Speaker 1: how our overall physical health is so much more important
Speaker 1: for our levels of stress and anxiety then we've probably
Speaker 1: been led to imagine or to believe in the past.
Speaker 1: So yes, like I said, absolutely jam packed as always
Speaker 1: before we get into it. If you do enjoy this episode,
Speaker 1: and I feel called to do so, please consider leaving
Speaker 1: a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. This is what
Speaker 1: allows this show to grow and reach new people, and
Speaker 1: it's a lovely feeling to know people are enjoying the pod.
Speaker 1: So if you feel called to do so, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. It's just me here. So all the reinforcement
Speaker 1: and affirmation is greatly appreciated. So yeah, let's jump right in,
Speaker 1: shall we. So why is the anxious mind or anxiety
Speaker 1: something I thought we should discuss on this podcast, a
Speaker 1: podcast about our twenties. Where does anxiety kind of where
Speaker 1: is its placed in this decade of our lives. Well,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's no secret to anyone really that
Speaker 1: anxiety is a pretty common experience, not just in our twenties.
Speaker 1: But an important caveat to that is at the vast
Speaker 1: majority of mental health disorders like anxiety disorder do emerge
Speaker 1: during early adolescence or sorry, late adolescents, or our early twenties.
Speaker 1: So if you are going to have an anxiety anxiety
Speaker 1: disorder as an adult in your thirties, in your forties,
Speaker 1: there is about a ninety percent chance that you'll have
Speaker 1: had it in your twenties or in your late teens. Basically,
Speaker 1: you're not just going to develop an anxiety disorder as
Speaker 1: an adult. You're going to develop it when you're young,
Speaker 1: and then it will carry through to later adulthood. And
Speaker 1: all this emerging research that's coming out suggests that this
Speaker 1: is because in adolescence and in our early twenties, it's
Speaker 1: the time when our brain is changing to a great degree.
Speaker 1: We once thought, I guess that our brain didn't really
Speaker 1: change much after early childhood. There used to be this
Speaker 1: kind of consensus that, you know, once we reached the
Speaker 1: age of twelve, or the neurons all the structures were there,
Speaker 1: or the lobes were developed. But what we've seen is
Speaker 1: that the brain continues to undergo really profound changes up
Speaker 1: until your mid twenties twenty five. If you're a guy
Speaker 1: listening to this, which I'm not sure if you are,
Speaker 1: I know that that population of my audience is pretty low,
Speaker 1: but there you go. If you're under the age of
Speaker 1: twenty five, you've still got some growing to do, and
Speaker 1: your brain is quite malleable at this time. So being
Speaker 1: exposed to different influences in your social and physical environment
Speaker 1: can really have a profound impact on the way that
Speaker 1: your brain is going to continue to develop and your
Speaker 1: experience with things like anxiety or even an anxiety disorder
Speaker 1: later in adulthood and into your late twenty So anxiety
Speaker 1: means a few things as well. Let's just clarify what
Speaker 1: we're talking about here. There is a distinction that needs
Speaker 1: to be made and is often made in psychology, between anxiety,
Speaker 1: which is a sensation, it's a feeling, and anxiety when
Speaker 1: we refer to it as a disorder. So an anxiety
Speaker 1: disorder is different from general feelings of anxiety that we're
Speaker 1: all going to get every now and again, which we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss more later on. But it's really important
Speaker 1: to understand that distinction. I think they're often used interchangeably,
Speaker 1: which is kind of emerging in those discussions of how
Speaker 1: do we refer to mental health disorders in a way
Speaker 1: that's appropriate, you know what I mean that being like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I have anxiety when you're really just feeling,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a bit socially awkward versus someone who
Speaker 1: has like a long term, really debilitating experience with frequent panic.
Speaker 1: It's the same with like discussions around phobias as well,
Speaker 1: being like, oh my god, I have a massive phobia
Speaker 1: of that you probably don't, maybe you do. But there
Speaker 1: is an important distinction between the feeling of anxiety and
Speaker 1: anxiety as a medical condition. But firstly, we're going to
Speaker 1: focus on anxiety, the specific feeling in our twenties, so
Speaker 1: just to get the definitions out of the way, because
Speaker 1: I know that it helps structure these episodes a little
Speaker 1: bit more. Anxiety is your body's natural response to stress,
Speaker 1: it's a feeling of fear or apprehension about what's to
Speaker 1: come or what is in your environment. And it basically
Speaker 1: contains a series of physiological so physical and psychological feelings
Speaker 1: or symptoms that make you feel alert, often at a cost. Say,
Speaker 1: for example, you know there's a social situation, you're feeling
Speaker 1: really out of place. Some of those feelings and symptoms
Speaker 1: that come along with that might be increased alertness because
Speaker 1: your heart rate's gone up. You might feel like a
Speaker 1: little bit dizzy, you might feel like your thoughts are
Speaker 1: running around your head, maybe your palms are sweating. Those
Speaker 1: are all kind of the kind of flow off of
Speaker 1: that need, your brains perceived need in that situation to
Speaker 1: be more alert because it's sensing a threat in the environment. Now,
Speaker 1: because anxiety emerged as a response to something dangerous in
Speaker 1: the environment, it is a very very has a very
Speaker 1: long history. I'm sure you know this of you know,
Speaker 1: it came from a very instinctual need back when we
Speaker 1: were running around the planes of the savannah or whatever
Speaker 1: to allow us to survive. And now it's kind of
Speaker 1: warped into something else because we no longer have those
Speaker 1: threats of a wild animal or something immediately that's going
Speaker 1: to kill us. So it's become kind of no longer
Speaker 1: necessary to the that it used to be in our
Speaker 1: modern lives because it originally served as a trigger or
Speaker 1: a way for the body to push you to either fight, flee,
Speaker 1: or freeze. So this is known as the fight or
Speaker 1: flight response. I'm sure you've heard about this, so but
Speaker 1: let's just explain it just in case you only know
Speaker 1: it from kind of a very shallow perspective or just
Speaker 1: knowing that it exists. So, the fight or flight response
Speaker 1: is your body's reaction to a threat or a stressor
Speaker 1: in the environment. This is how it works. So our
Speaker 1: brains have evolved for ages, for years and years and years, decade, centuries,
Speaker 1: all those time periods to be really good and ensuring
Speaker 1: our survival and to be really good at identifying things
Speaker 1: that may hurt us or may cause us harm or
Speaker 1: harm to our community. So when your brain notices something
Speaker 1: in the environment that could potentially be a threat, it
Speaker 1: encodes that it basically integrates that or interprets it more liberally.
Speaker 1: So our brains they want us to be more alert
Speaker 1: than less alert. So if there's something in your environment
Speaker 1: that's a little bit ambiguous that could potentially hurt you.
Speaker 1: Your brain's going to pick that up, and depending on
Speaker 1: your current kind of mental state, either you process it
Speaker 1: and you disregard it, or you become attuned to it
Speaker 1: and you see it as something that like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: should be worried about this. That sends a bunch of
Speaker 1: reactions through our body. It activates a part of our
Speaker 1: nervous system, so part of our yeah, basically of our
Speaker 1: central nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. So the
Speaker 1: sympathetic nervous system is part of our central nervous system,
Speaker 1: and it's the part that wants us to be active.
Speaker 1: It's the part that responds to stress. So when stimulated,
Speaker 1: the nerves that form part of the sympathetic nervous system,
Speaker 1: they prepare you for to either flee or to fight.
Speaker 1: So fight or flight that's the response, right. So the
Speaker 1: things that you'll probably feel, maybe you won't be able
Speaker 1: to feel this particularly, but the nervous system, it increases
Speaker 1: blood throw to your blood flow to your muscles, It
Speaker 1: decreases blood flow to things that probably won't help you
Speaker 1: in that situation, like your digestive system, like your skin,
Speaker 1: and it basically activates all these other things that result
Speaker 1: in you know, that feeling of like being sweaty and
Speaker 1: being anxious and feeling jittery. And it also triggers the
Speaker 1: release of nora finefrin, which is our stress hormone, which
Speaker 1: pushes us to be able to run faster, to be
Speaker 1: able to stay still if we're hiding, to be able
Speaker 1: to fight back. It's what is known as adrenaline. Adrenaline
Speaker 1: is a key feature of that stress response of anxiety.
Speaker 1: So then you know you've felt anxious, you've either you know,
Speaker 1: fought off this threat, and now your brain needs to
Speaker 1: climb you down. You know you can, you know, your
Speaker 1: body can't always be in a heightened state of alert.
Speaker 1: And there comes the parasympathetic nervous system. So this is
Speaker 1: kind of the system to the sympathetic nervous system, but
Speaker 1: it does the opposite of what the sympathetic nervous system does.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like an ice bath for the body.
Speaker 1: It releases another set of chemicals to tell your body
Speaker 1: to kind of chill, to release tension in your muscles,
Speaker 1: to restart that blood flow to less important features features
Speaker 1: of your of your body and of your systems in
Speaker 1: a fight, but which we kind of need for everyday use,
Speaker 1: like your digestive system and those things like that. So
Speaker 1: this chemical reaction is what causes anxiety. Now. Like I said,
Speaker 1: back in the past that was super useful, but in
Speaker 1: the modern day, we tend to be triggered by many
Speaker 1: things that aren't even dangerous anymore. That's where a lot
Speaker 1: of social anxiety comes from. You know, small things that
Speaker 1: our brains you know, previously definitely did need to interpret
Speaker 1: as threats, but in the modern day, they really aren't
Speaker 1: that scary anymore. They're really not going to cause you
Speaker 1: severe harm or stress. So think about it like this.
Speaker 1: Think about you're walking down the street and you hear
Speaker 1: like a loud noise. You can feel really anxious about that,
Speaker 1: you know, despite the fact that it probably doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you know, that a rival tribe is coming to get you,
Speaker 1: or a dog like a dog barks that you, or
Speaker 1: like a shadowy figure in the night. But we can
Speaker 1: also be scared of things like meeting new people or
Speaker 1: having to go and do new things. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of where social anxiety comes from, which we'll talk about later.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of like our normal systems for anxiety
Speaker 1: have been hijacked and warped by our current modern day setting.
Speaker 1: So what are the down sides of that? Well, the
Speaker 1: downsides of that is that a system that previously was
Speaker 1: really important for keeping us safe now is no longer
Speaker 1: operable in the same way, so it malfunctions and it
Speaker 1: creates anxiety about things that you don't really need to
Speaker 1: be anxious of now. Importantly, there are individual differences in
Speaker 1: whether you're more likely to experience anxiety or less likely,
Speaker 1: so this is called the threshold for stress. So different
Speaker 1: people have different thresholds. Imagine it like those carnival games
Speaker 1: you kind of see in movies where people like bring
Speaker 1: down a hammer and something like flies up in the
Speaker 1: air and you hit a certain target. So some people,
Speaker 1: just a small bump of that hammer, just a small
Speaker 1: threat or sense of unease, will create massive feelings of
Speaker 1: anxiety because their threshold is lower. So our brain only
Speaker 1: needs to reach a certain point for it to activate
Speaker 1: the sympathetic nervous system. Whereas I'm sure you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people. I'm sure you have a friend in
Speaker 1: your life who nothing stresses them out. Nothing, there is
Speaker 1: really nothing that freaks them out, nothing that scares them,
Speaker 1: they don't really feel anxious, and that's because their threshold
Speaker 1: is a lot higher. It means that they're not as
Speaker 1: anxious about certain things. They're very lucky those people, and
Speaker 1: it probably causes less problems for them in some ways. Well,
Speaker 1: I would definitely assume, now here's the thing where you
Speaker 1: sit on that threshold of scale. So whether you have
Speaker 1: a low threshold or a high threshold, high threshold being
Speaker 1: you're less likely to experience anxiety. It's not a permanent state.
Speaker 1: You know, someone born with a low threshold or a
Speaker 1: high threshold of anxiety isn't always going to sit at
Speaker 1: that point for the rest of their life. It is
Speaker 1: mediated and moderated by other lifestyle factors like whether there
Speaker 1: you are just undergoing a period of intense stress work,
Speaker 1: maybe you're going through a breakup, you haven't gotten enough sleep, illness,
Speaker 1: all of those kinds of things. But if you are
Speaker 1: at a low threshold for stress, so you feel anxiety
Speaker 1: more frequently, that can cause a lot of problems, a
Speaker 1: lot of problems for our body, a lot of problems
Speaker 1: for our brain, for our mental health, our social health,
Speaker 1: the full package. So when noropinephrine and other stress hormones
Speaker 1: are frequently activated. They also activate in your brain this
Speaker 1: thing called cortisol. So cortisol is the long term stress hormone.
Speaker 1: It sometimes helps you in those immediate fight or flight responses,
Speaker 1: but it's more so a chemical that's released to deal
Speaker 1: with long term stressful situations. That's great, it's really useful.
Speaker 1: It's really useful for keeping you alert, for keeping you focused,
Speaker 1: for keeping you active during periods of intense stress. If
Speaker 1: they don't last for very long, but if you're frequently
Speaker 1: getting these bursts of cortisol in your brain and in
Speaker 1: your body, it will begin to build up and it
Speaker 1: triggers an immune response. So if your brain is repeatedly
Speaker 1: using that resource, it's taking away energy from your immune system.
Speaker 1: So that's why after periods of intense stress, you know,
Speaker 1: after you finished like exams or something like that, you
Speaker 1: see a lot of people get sick because our brains
Speaker 1: have been so focused on that stressful event and that
Speaker 1: stressful period that it's taken energy away from other areas
Speaker 1: of our body and such as fighting off disease or
Speaker 1: fighting off parasites, and moved it towards what we need
Speaker 1: in the moment, and cortisol really causes that because it
Speaker 1: puts a lot of strain and stress on our body.
Speaker 1: And if you have periods of increased cortisol or heightened
Speaker 1: cortisol levels for a long time, you're going to experience
Speaker 1: a range of consequences, not just getting sick more often,
Speaker 1: but long term stress responses, things like burnout, explosions of
Speaker 1: anger and rage because your body whoops, that was my email,
Speaker 1: because your body cannot handle the constant pressure on your
Speaker 1: systems and on the rest of your body. And for
Speaker 1: the example of this, you're working a really stressful jobs
Speaker 1: like an investment banker or as a healthcare worker, as
Speaker 1: an emergency response worker, you're likely to have periods of
Speaker 1: heightened CORET results for extended periods of time, so or
Speaker 1: back to back periods of time, and that has other
Speaker 1: health consequences that are longer term than you know burnout
Speaker 1: or explosions. You might have a high risk of cardiac
Speaker 1: issues because it's putting that increase in blood pressure caused
Speaker 1: by those neurotransmitters and those chemicals are putting increased pressure
Speaker 1: on your heart. You might have more problems with your
Speaker 1: muscles because stress increases kind of the activation of your muscles,
Speaker 1: so they become increasingly under pressure and increasingly stressed. So
Speaker 1: things like that. So anxiety as a reaction to an
Speaker 1: event or something external can be really stressful, and as
Speaker 1: we've talked about, over a long period of time, it
Speaker 1: can actually be quite dangerous. It can be dangerous to you.
Speaker 1: In our twenties, our experiences with anxiety and the sources
Speaker 1: of anxiety are going to be very different to where
Speaker 1: the source of that comes from in our teenage years
Speaker 1: and later adulthood. So especially in our mid twenties, when
Speaker 1: you know, we're probably finished with things like exams, we're
Speaker 1: finished with long term study, which would probably cause a
Speaker 1: lot of stress in our teenage years, and we don't
Speaker 1: have those other commitments, you know, big financial commitments, mortgages, children, marriages.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a pretty unique time, but they were
Speaker 1: also very big, major milestones and transitions during this decade
Speaker 1: that are distinct and unique to our twenties. And further
Speaker 1: to that, there's a sense of novelty. We're going to
Speaker 1: be experiencing a lot of things for the first time
Speaker 1: that are going to become unique sources of stress and
Speaker 1: anxiety or be perceived as threats to our well being
Speaker 1: by our body and by our mind and by our consciousness.
Speaker 1: So what are some of these unique experiences since I've
Speaker 1: hyped them up so much. Well, the first thing is
Speaker 1: big life transitions like going to university and moving out
Speaker 1: of home. That is a major stressor for a lot
Speaker 1: of people. You have to adapt to a new kind
Speaker 1: of educational system, new support structures, new daily routines, new
Speaker 1: way of doing things, and you probably no longer have
Speaker 1: if you're lucky, that's stable support of your family that
Speaker 1: you used to have when you lived at home. That's
Speaker 1: compounded by new financial responsibilit like rent and paying for
Speaker 1: your utilities, and learning how to feed yourself consistently and
Speaker 1: get yourself places and kind of adapt to these new
Speaker 1: circumstances that you're in. And for all those who have
Speaker 1: done UNI, who have started UNI, that first year it
Speaker 1: can be quite stressful as you try and find your
Speaker 1: place in that new environment and you try and live
Speaker 1: on your own. But it also relates to a second thing,
Speaker 1: which is things like new relationships and new friendships. Even
Speaker 1: if you didn't go to UNI, which is just my
Speaker 1: advantage point, but in your twenties, you begin to perhaps
Speaker 1: shift away from previously held groups of friends, your high
Speaker 1: school friends, your neighborhood friends, and you start forming more
Speaker 1: serious relationships and shifting social groups. This can cause a
Speaker 1: lot of things. It can cause things like FOMO fear
Speaker 1: of missing out, which I did a whole episode on
Speaker 1: back when I first started the podcast about how if
Speaker 1: you've never experience from or before, if you've always felt
Speaker 1: really content with your friendships, it can be a really
Speaker 1: stressful experience. There are also unique challenges that come with
Speaker 1: creating more serious relationships and friendships, like conflict, like misunderstandings,
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, like breakups, like friendship breakups,
Speaker 1: which is another episode that we talked about. Relationships and
Speaker 1: friendships are a huge source of joy and pleasure and enjoyment,
Speaker 1: but they're also a huge source of stress when they're
Speaker 1: not going right. Because they are so important to our
Speaker 1: well being, we place a lot of pressure and emphasis
Speaker 1: on them. There are other things. First jobs, jobs working
Speaker 1: full time that is stressful, and as someone who's gone
Speaker 1: through that recently starting my first kind of nine to
Speaker 1: five experience, it completely shifts the dynamics of your day
Speaker 1: and of your routine and of your life. You having
Speaker 1: to get up and go to work every morning, get
Speaker 1: there by nine, finished by five or six, figuring out
Speaker 1: how to structure your hobbies and the things that you love,
Speaker 1: and getting outdoors and seeing your friends around this new
Speaker 1: reality for yourself, and then perhaps things that are more
Speaker 1: person to person, like new sleeping habits, socializing, partying, drugs, using,
Speaker 1: starting to drink alcohol. Alcohol is a massive source of stress,
Speaker 1: and it can create stressful situations. And in our twenties
Speaker 1: is probably you know, late teens, early twenties is when
Speaker 1: we start drinking and when we start socializing and partying
Speaker 1: and being responsible for our own actions in that way.
Speaker 1: And you know, there are a lot of other things
Speaker 1: and in addition to that as well, like I said,
Speaker 1: alcohol is a massive one. Not knowing your boundaries in
Speaker 1: your twenties, that's when you really start to create an
Speaker 1: expectation for your relationship and relationships and your friendships and
Speaker 1: for your family and for yourself about how you want
Speaker 1: to be treated and how you show respect to yourself
Speaker 1: and respect to others, what you do to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself and things like that. There's also the experience
Speaker 1: of really not knowing where you are in the world.
Speaker 1: Quintessential early twenties, late twenties, all twenties experience. I think
Speaker 1: this decade is often defined by major shifts in how
Speaker 1: we choose to live our lives, major shifts in our values,
Speaker 1: in our daily routines. And alongside that, there's this pressure
Speaker 1: to kind of know what you're doing, to try and
Speaker 1: get ahead and achieve your goals. And that puts a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on us, a lot of pressure on
Speaker 1: us in this decade because here's a secret no one
Speaker 1: fucking knows. There is no playbook, and we can make
Speaker 1: a lot of mistakes which cause stress. We can step
Speaker 1: out of line, do things great, be challenged by a
Speaker 1: lot of different situations that we haven't yet been in.
Speaker 1: And if we have been, we've normally had the support
Speaker 1: of our family and close social circles that we no
Speaker 1: longer have. And this kind of relates to another point
Speaker 1: that I really like to discuss with my friends and
Speaker 1: with other people who are in this, you know, this
Speaker 1: age with me, and that's around career anxiety. Career anxiety
Speaker 1: is like huge for people our age, For millennials, I
Speaker 1: guess that's what we're called. I don't really know for
Speaker 1: people in our twenties, because there is this pressure in
Speaker 1: society to be hustling and working to be, you know,
Speaker 1: the next Steve Jobs or whatever, you know, Elon Musk
Speaker 1: someone popular. I'm obviously not in tearing with that entrepreneurial side,
Speaker 1: but there's this sense that we need to have it
Speaker 1: all figured out, but be working really hard and have
Speaker 1: an idea of what we're working hard for and where
Speaker 1: we want to be in ten years. But it's always
Speaker 1: going to leave us feeling less than if we were
Speaker 1: you know, just focus more on personal development. Not to
Speaker 1: mention like it's just a bit of a race. It's
Speaker 1: all a bit of a rat race of trying to
Speaker 1: be the best and the most inventive and the most successful.
Speaker 1: And there is this internal and external pressure to have
Speaker 1: things figured out immediately after you finish your trade, or
Speaker 1: after you finish high school, or after you finish your
Speaker 1: first job or union, to be constantly reinventing the wheel
Speaker 1: that is your life. It's really exhausting and it creates
Speaker 1: a lot of anxiety because it's a sense of threat.
Speaker 1: We have all this apprehension about the future, about if
Speaker 1: things are going to be okay. And the wonderful thing
Speaker 1: is that you know most of the time they do
Speaker 1: turn out to be that way, but in the moment,
Speaker 1: in those really tense and tough periods, there's no way
Speaker 1: to guarantee that, and it links up to a lot
Speaker 1: of catastrophizing and a lot of unknowns that are a
Speaker 1: huge source of anxiety. I've heard it from so many friends,
Speaker 1: so many people I've talked to this about, and not
Speaker 1: alongside all those other shifts that we've talked about, what
Speaker 1: do we do about it? What do we do if
Speaker 1: you're someone who has a low threshold for anxiety, or
Speaker 1: who is prone to experiencing anxiety perhaps more often than
Speaker 1: someone else. Are there basic ways to kind of manage
Speaker 1: that feeling or are you just beholden to it? You
Speaker 1: don't have to wait very long for the answer. There
Speaker 1: is definitely a way to manage feelings of anxiety. And
Speaker 1: like I said, anxiety disorders a whole another kind of
Speaker 1: words which we will crack open in a moment. But
Speaker 1: in terms of frequent feelings of just like apprehension and
Speaker 1: fear and worry, there are things that you can do
Speaker 1: to kind of make that better. Obviously this is an
Speaker 1: exhaustive list, but just some things that I've done, friends
Speaker 1: have done that, I've heard about, researched the first one
Speaker 1: being and I will stick by this for as long
Speaker 1: as I live. Cut out caffeine. You are an anxious person.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Why are you drinking three coffees
Speaker 1: a day? You don't need that, Your body doesn't need that.
Speaker 1: You already have enough of that alertness running around your bloodstream.
Speaker 1: So I was really anxious at the start of my
Speaker 1: third year of UNI, and I just decided to go
Speaker 1: cut cold turkey on the caffeine, just stopped drinking it
Speaker 1: all together. And let me tell you, I've been converted.
Speaker 1: I think it was one of the best decisions I
Speaker 1: made for my mental health ever. It was great because
Speaker 1: caffeine is a stimulant. It causes your brain to be hyperactive.
Speaker 1: It causes you to have a stress reaction, and some
Speaker 1: people can manage that fine, But if you are in
Speaker 1: a period of heightened stress and anxiety, there's just like
Speaker 1: no reason to be drinking caffeine. Your body's already pumped
Speaker 1: with enough stuff to keep you focused. And yeah, decaf
Speaker 1: is always an option if you like the taste. I
Speaker 1: drink decafe. I think it's fabulous. And when I stopped
Speaker 1: drinking caffeine. I remember there was like a period of
Speaker 1: two weeks while I was intensely tired, like intensely tired,
Speaker 1: could not focus because I was addicted. But after that
Speaker 1: like short period, it got so much better. And now
Speaker 1: I don't think I've drunk. I'm like terrified of drinking caffeine.
Speaker 1: I haven't touched it for like two or three years.
Speaker 1: Caffeine is one, but perhaps a more broad ideas just
Speaker 1: removing stresses out of your life or facing them. So anxiety,
Speaker 1: A big source of it is avoidance is realizing something
Speaker 1: triggers you or upsets you and then avoiding it for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. And all that's going to
Speaker 1: do is lead to more apprehension and an increased stress
Speaker 1: reaction or stress response anxiety response. When you do encounter
Speaker 1: encounter that stimulus. Maybe it's like a friend you have
Speaker 1: conflict with. Maybe it's like a situation that you're really
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with, like giving presentations or driving long distances. I
Speaker 1: don't know, whatever your cup of tea is, whatever you're yeah,
Speaker 1: whatever you're facing, but you need to either choose to
Speaker 1: remove that stressor if it's a toxic friend or a
Speaker 1: bad living environment. Yeah, you've get to create the life
Speaker 1: you want. So get rid of those bad relationships, get
Speaker 1: rid of those bad living situations, those bad jobs. We've
Speaker 1: all had them. It's just not worth the time. And
Speaker 1: as we've talked about, there are long term stress and
Speaker 1: health consequences to experiencing heightened periods of anxiety and quartus
Speaker 1: or release. You know, that's one option removing them. But
Speaker 1: like I also said, it's important to also face the
Speaker 1: stresses that you can't control which are causing you anxiety,
Speaker 1: otherwise they begin to have power over you. It's all
Speaker 1: about having a sense of self determination over your life,
Speaker 1: over what you choose to be, beholden to what you
Speaker 1: choose to let you feel a certain way. There are
Speaker 1: other things as well, perhaps more practical, And I know
Speaker 1: I'm going to sound like a broken record, And if
Speaker 1: you've had any experience with a therapist or a psychologist,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I have told you this again and again,
Speaker 1: so I'm so sorry, but meditation and mindfulness are so incredible.
Speaker 1: They are so incredible. They completely rewire your brain towards
Speaker 1: peace and towards being able to have a great buy
Speaker 1: of feedback loop. When you are experiencing anxiety, and I
Speaker 1: just really recommend it. It's really easy to do. Just
Speaker 1: download like a meditation app or go on Spotify where
Speaker 1: you am assuming listening to this podcast, and you can
Speaker 1: find some incredible, incredible content to help you reduce feelings
Speaker 1: of anxiety but also give you the resources to deal
Speaker 1: with that feeling when it comes up in inappropriate times.
Speaker 1: And it's all part of this broader idea. I think
Speaker 1: of healthier practices, you boundaries, caffeine, removing stresses, meditation, mindfulness.
Speaker 1: Those are all things that you can choose to do
Speaker 1: for yourself, and it comes hand in hand with other
Speaker 1: more practical things like physical x the size which helps
Speaker 1: release stress from your body, getting a good night's sleep,
Speaker 1: taking care of your health. It's all part of a
Speaker 1: holistic response I think, to making sure that you can
Speaker 1: operate at your best and you're not experiencing those negative
Speaker 1: feelings of worry that are perhaps getting in the way
Speaker 1: of you doing what you want to do with your life.
Speaker 1: So far, we've spent a lot of time talking about anxiety,
Speaker 1: the feeling and how to kind of get through that.
Speaker 1: Why it is experienced, perhaps more in our twenties in
Speaker 1: response to different things that are going on. But now
Speaker 1: we're going to jump into the second half of the episode,
Speaker 1: the encore, which is about anxiety disorders, a whole other
Speaker 1: can of fish, a whole nother conversation to be had.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to make a disclaimer here. I'm obviously
Speaker 1: not an expert. I'm not here to diagnose anyone. If
Speaker 1: you think that you have an anxiety disorder based on
Speaker 1: what we talk about, go and see your psychologist, Go
Speaker 1: and see a GP. If you're in Australia, you can
Speaker 1: get on your mental health care plan that's ten free
Speaker 1: or subsidized sessions through your GP and they'll help you
Speaker 1: find someone within your kind of area, within your area
Speaker 1: of you know, not just geographically, but what you want
Speaker 1: to kind of deal with and they'll help you out.
Speaker 1: So if you do worry or think that this might
Speaker 1: relate to you, just take a leap and go and
Speaker 1: get its ordered or think about, you know, the process
Speaker 1: that all the steps you can take to start doing
Speaker 1: the right thing for yourself and taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1: But like I said, anxiety disorders, they need to be
Speaker 1: diagnosed by more of a professional and clinical system. Feeling
Speaker 1: of anxiety, feeling of worry, you can kind of identify
Speaker 1: that yourself, but when that feeling becomes prolonged, when you
Speaker 1: can't control it, that's when a medical professional probably start
Speaker 1: to think that your system of anxiety, your sympathetic nervous system,
Speaker 1: has probably started to malfunction and operate in a way
Speaker 1: that's a bit dangerous or counter to your health. So
Speaker 1: anxiety disorders there are a group of mental health problems
Speaker 1: that include things like generalized anxiety, social phobias, specific phobias,
Speaker 1: some of which you may have heard of, like agoraphobia
Speaker 1: and claustrophobia and panic disorders. And bad news is that
Speaker 1: other issues, like depression, they're often related to anxiety disorders.
Speaker 1: So these days, normally, if you get a diagnosis of
Speaker 1: an anxiety disorder, you're very likely to also have depression
Speaker 1: as a comorbid disorder alongside that, just because of the
Speaker 1: systems that they activate. So if you're up all the
Speaker 1: time and your body has to constantly be pushing you
Speaker 1: down and pushing your systems down, yeah, it's probably likely
Speaker 1: that you're also going to be feeling quite low and
Speaker 1: quite depressed. So anxiety disorders their really common mental health
Speaker 1: problems that affect a lot of people. So I think
Speaker 1: estimates in Australia approximately twenty five percent of the population
Speaker 1: will have an anxiety disorder that warrants treatment at some
Speaker 1: time in their life, and up to another twenty five
Speaker 1: percent may also experience less severe anxieties around particular objects
Speaker 1: or situations like social situations, or spiders or snakes or
Speaker 1: death or things like that. So one and four that's
Speaker 1: a lot of people. That is a lot of people,
Speaker 1: And of course there's really no explanation as to why
Speaker 1: that's so high. Some people say it's because the modern
Speaker 1: world is created in a way that gives us such
Speaker 1: excess stimulation and additional things to stress about that these
Speaker 1: previous systems, which were more alert to very infrequent kind
Speaker 1: of threats and things in our environment and in our periphery,
Speaker 1: now they're just like constantly activated by things going on
Speaker 1: in the world. Everyone, like I said, experiences anxiety and
Speaker 1: fear at times. They are normal and helpful human emotions
Speaker 1: and reactions that do help us deal with danger and
Speaker 1: can probably save your life. However, some people experience excessive
Speaker 1: and irrational irrational. Being a critical world, there irrational anxiety
Speaker 1: and worries that become ungoing and distressing and then interfere
Speaker 1: with their daily life. Kind of hand in hand with
Speaker 1: anxiety disorders, alongside depression is this idea of intrusive thoughts,
Speaker 1: which are worrying thoughts that just like kind of pop
Speaker 1: into your head and you can't do anything to stop them.
Speaker 1: All of these things, this frequent, distressing sense of worry,
Speaker 1: this is indicative of an anxiety disorder. And often there
Speaker 1: doesn't really appear to be an obvious or logical reason
Speaker 1: for the way that you might be feeling, and that's
Speaker 1: what makes it kind of worse to the sufferer. It's
Speaker 1: really hard and research are still struggle to understand why
Speaker 1: it is that some people develop anxiety disorders from general
Speaker 1: worry and some people don't. So these main features of
Speaker 1: an anxiety disorder are fears and thoughts that are chronic,
Speaker 1: so constant, and they're distressing. They're distressing, they're not a
Speaker 1: pleasant feeling, and they will interfere with your daily living.
Speaker 1: Symptoms like panic or anxiety attacks or fear of these
Speaker 1: attacks in inappropriate situations, really intense physical reactions like trembling
Speaker 1: and sweating, fainting, a rapid heartbreak, difficulty breathing, or nausea.
Speaker 1: And then finally, and this is one that I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know in which we've kind
Speaker 1: of mentioned just before, but avoidance behavior. Avoidance behavior is
Speaker 1: actually one of the key pillars of anxiety disorders. A
Speaker 1: person who's suffering from something like a social phobia or
Speaker 1: a specific phobia, they may go to extreme lengths to
Speaker 1: avoid a situation that they think could bring on anxiety
Speaker 1: or panic. And they're avoiding that specific trigger because of
Speaker 1: their fear of panic in uncomfortable situations, because of their
Speaker 1: fear of the sensation of anxiety. So let's just go
Speaker 1: through some of the types of anxiety disorders. We've got
Speaker 1: generalized anxiety. This is just like worrying about a lot
Speaker 1: of things like family, friends, health, work, money, all of
Speaker 1: those things forgetting important things. And importantly, that anxiety it
Speaker 1: can't just be like during a heartened period of like
Speaker 1: a week where you have a lot of deadlines. It
Speaker 1: does have to be present in most days over a
Speaker 1: six month period. And you know, I think sometimes when
Speaker 1: you're worried, you can go for a run and sort
Speaker 1: it all out. But in the situation of generalized anxiety,
Speaker 1: you'll find it really difficult to control this feeling. Then
Speaker 1: we have phobias. So social phobias are the first one.
Speaker 1: They have their own unique definition in the DSM and
Speaker 1: their own clinical set of criteria and characteristics. But as
Speaker 1: social phobia comes to both who are afraid of being
Speaker 1: negatively judged or evaluated by others, They have an extreme
Speaker 1: fear of social acceptance, of wanting to be included in
Speaker 1: the group that they have a membership too. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about the idea of social anxiety a lot on
Speaker 1: the podcast and how it is an incredibly natural reaction
Speaker 1: to want to be accepted. But a social phobia in
Speaker 1: particular leads to the fear of doing something that may
Speaker 1: humiliate you in public or that may cause you to
Speaker 1: be outcast, and eventually, like I said, the avoidance factor
Speaker 1: comes in and you might avoid things like public speaking,
Speaker 1: or eating or drinking in public, or any social encounters
Speaker 1: like parties or the workplace because you're so worried about
Speaker 1: a negative social experience that might cause you to be
Speaker 1: kind of exiled. And some social phobia sufferers they only
Speaker 1: fear one type of situation, whereas others may be concerned
Speaker 1: about several types of situation and can lead these people
Speaker 1: to avoid the feared situations, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: tragedy because it does create isolation and it does stop
Speaker 1: you from participating in the activities that you usually enjoy.
Speaker 1: So social phobia is its own, and then we have
Speaker 1: specific phobias. So a specific phobia, it's a persistent and
Speaker 1: irrational fear of a particular object or situation. So people
Speaker 1: with this may fear animals or places or people. Really
Speaker 1: common ones are like dogs, blood spiders, airplanes, and this
Speaker 1: fear is so severe that a person may experience physical
Speaker 1: symptoms and panic attacks, and that anxiety becomes excessive and
Speaker 1: interfering excessive and interfering unreasonable. Those are the key words,
Speaker 1: because you end up restricting your daily life because of
Speaker 1: fear of seeing these objects. Are experiencing these situations, and
Speaker 1: sometimes if you go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist,
Speaker 1: the way they get rid of this is like kind
Speaker 1: of counterintuitive in some ways, is very logical, but they
Speaker 1: just like flood you with experiences. So if you've got
Speaker 1: a fear of planes, they make you build up and
Speaker 1: go on planes, or if you have a fear of dogs,
Speaker 1: they'll like rapidly emerge you in a situation in which
Speaker 1: you're surrounded by dogs and you can't really do anything
Speaker 1: about it, but you're in a safe environment, so that
Speaker 1: those consequences of what you think the dogs or the
Speaker 1: planes are the bloods is associated with, they don't come
Speaker 1: to be. So you learn to remove that association between
Speaker 1: the thing that you have a specific phobia of and
Speaker 1: the negative outcome that you've learned to associate with it.
Speaker 1: And amongst all of these things is the idea of
Speaker 1: panic attacks panic attack disorders. Though there are a lot
Speaker 1: less common, they affect to think about like one to
Speaker 1: two percent of the population. And if you want to
Speaker 1: be diagnosed with a panic disorder, you usually have to
Speaker 1: have had at least four panic attacks each month over
Speaker 1: an extended period of time, and these panic attacks they
Speaker 1: have to come about spontaneously. Panic disorder. It might be
Speaker 1: diagnosed if panic attacks are frequent and if there is
Speaker 1: a strong and persistent fear of another attack occurring. And
Speaker 1: like with all of these, they are very separate from
Speaker 1: just the general feeling of anxiety, and you need to
Speaker 1: go to a professional to have them diagnosed, and there
Speaker 1: are heaps of different options after the fact for treatment,
Speaker 1: things like medication really help people meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy,
Speaker 1: immersion therapy like with those phobias, and they'll probably be
Speaker 1: heaps of options and more options in the future about
Speaker 1: how do we actually help people with these disorders to
Speaker 1: overcome that debilitating sense of interruption in their life and
Speaker 1: live full and fulfilling lives. Well, I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode. If you're still here, congratulations, because it was
Speaker 1: a bit of a long one, but like I said,
Speaker 1: so much to talk about. There were so many things
Speaker 1: that I didn't include that I was like, this is
Speaker 1: so important, I should have included it. But maybe that
Speaker 1: just requires a part too. If you want me to
Speaker 1: go more into the science of things, I think I
Speaker 1: gave a bit of a basic overview, but there's definitely
Speaker 1: a lot more depth. Maybe that's some area for your
Speaker 1: own research. But thank you again for listening, and I
Speaker 1: really hope you enjoyed it, hope you learned something as always,
Speaker 1: and if you have any suggestions for future ideas, I've
Speaker 1: got a couple of things that I really want to do,
Speaker 1: but I feel like I've been kind of taking the
Speaker 1: reins and just going a little bit wild and talking
Speaker 1: about a lot of random things recently, so if there
Speaker 1: is a specific topic, reach out, let me know, follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram, subscribe to us on Spotify, just all
Speaker 1: those works. And thank you again for listening. And if
Speaker 1: you're anxious right now, go and see your GP. Please
Speaker 1: do it for me. I promise it will help you.
Speaker 1: And stop drinking caffeine if that's the only thing you've
Speaker 1: learned from this episode. Anyhow, thank you again and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next time.