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How to deal with anxiety and panic attacks
Anxiety is a part of life although some people are able to handle it better than others. There are ways to deal with anxiety and panic attacks that make them less intense. Therapy will never be able to completely eradicate anxiety but it can help you feel less impacted by the worry and stress.
The amygdala — your ‘smoke alarm’
Anxiety is the body’s way of alerting us to danger but sometimes our brain’s alarm system activates when there is no real danger. In our brain, the amygdala acts as a smoke detector. When we start to feel anxious or panicky, our amygdala has activated our stress response and this is when we begin to feel something is wrong.
Anxiety is a modern-day affliction but it does not have to completely overwhelm us. Modern-day threats are very different from the threats we would have face thousands of years ago when we roamed the earth as cavemen. What hasn’t changed is the way our brain responds to danger or at least perceived danger. Our stress response is activated in exactly the same way whether a lion is chasing us or we are worrying about a looming deadline at work.