genomind.com

Anxiety is one of the most difficult emotions to cope with and if you feel that you are continuously anxious then it’s a good idea to seek professional help. It’s a vicious cycle: You can’t fall asleep because you’re anxious—and you’re exhausted the next day, which makes you even more anxious. When gut problems transform from rare to frequent or even daily, or when they go from mildly uncomfortable to noticeably annoying, it’s time to call your doctor,” says Mullin. That’s because anxiety triggers your body’s stress response, which can affect the short-term learning and concentration areas of your brain.

Learn how to find the right treatment to make you feel better But first, ask about being tested with the Genomind Genecept Assay, a genetic test that can help your clinician understand if a particular drug is more or less likely to work for you—or, conversely, more likely to be poorly tolerated. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) target the neurotransmitter serotonin, while SNRIs (or serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) target both serotonin and norepinephrine. If you’re having an anxiety attack, you’ve got lots of norepinephrine pumping through your body, making your heart beat faster, your palms sweat, and your head feel a little dizzy. Some of the beta blockers used to treat anxiety off-label: Beta blockers aren’t addictive, but they may have some side effects, like dizziness, breathing problems, and nausea.

Research shows that brain activity linked to thinking and problem-solving can help you avoid—and cope with—anxiety.21; 22 Researchers at Duke University recently found that when participants at risk for developing anxiety worked on complex math problems, their brains were protected against worsening anxiety.23; 24 That’s because this kind of activity engages the brain’s executive control center, which also plays a role in regulating emotion. A 2018 study at Binghamton University showed that a lack of adequate sleep is associated with intrusive, repetitive thoughts—like the ones you experience when you’re feeling anxious.27; 28 Researchers discovered that regular sleep disruptions keep you from shifting your attention away from negative thoughts, allowing them to stick around and interfere with your life. Jacob A. Nota, Meredith E. Coles, “Shorter sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency are related to difficulty disengaging attention from negative emotional images in individuals with elevated transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking,” Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Volume 58, March 2018, 114-122. Jacob A. Nota, Meredith E. Coles, “Shorter sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency are related to difficulty disengaging attention from negative emotional images in individuals with elevated transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking,” Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Volume 58, March 2018, 114-122.

Although PTSD is commonly used to describe the effects of warfare on soldiers, this disorder can affect anyone who lives through a traumatic experience and is a long-lasting consequence of traumatic events that overwhelm a person’s ability to cope. If the amygdala is the initiator of the fight-or-flight response, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the assessor and regulator of such a response. Unfortunately, those with PTSD do not react as others with typical brain function would, instead their amygdala overreacts to stimuli and the medial prefrontal cortex is impaired in its ability to regulate the threat response. The effects of an unregulated amygdala due to an underperforming prefrontal cortex lead to feelings of hyper-arousal, which can trigger hyper-vigilance and increased sleep disruption.