CAN YOU REWIRE YOUR BRAIN TO DEAL WITH ANXIETY?

It’s a phrase you sometimes see online when researching anxiety: rewiring your brain. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but can it truly be possible to retrain or rewire your brain to deal with anxiety?    Well here’s how Your Tango explains it…it’s about retraining your thoughts of course, not opening up your head and moving things around obviously. Yes, anxiety can be necessary because it’s how we defend ourselves from real dangers in life, but too much of it can be horrible to live with, and unnecessary.    Your Tango makes a good point by telling us that “your worry is more of a problem than the problems you’re trying to manage with worry.” Worry can also be “like deep ruts in a country road – you fall into them without intending to.” So when you go down old paths, you can make new ones, which won’t come right away, or easily, but as Your Tango reminds us, “To make changes in something as deeply personal as your own brain, you will need to adopt awareness and patience…Your fears are formed in thoughts that you originated.”    So try new voices or recording in your head. “Thoughts like, ‘maybe that’s not so, in this case,’ or ‘can I really predict the future?’…Practice new ways of thinking, with little sayings that become familiar quickly, so they’re available when the ‘old’ thoughts come.”    This is similar to how people adopt the 12-step program, when “practicing the program” can eventually change your brains one day at a time. As Your Tango concludes, “There comes a time when the irrational fears become too much, know you have a choice. Your brain doesn’t need to be run, or overrun, with terrifying scenarios.”