0:04 okay so I got your questions on Reddit
0:05 and when I last looked at this page
0:08 there were over 1,300 of them so
0:11 needless to say I will not make much
0:13 Headway but I really thank you for
0:15 delivering so many questions and voting
0:17 them up and I I can only assume that the
0:20 ones that came first now were the ones
0:23 that in fact were reliably voted up some
0:25 of these questions surprise me but and
0:27 maybe I'll dig around a little to find
0:29 others that are of Interest so there are
0:31 many questions on anxiety and one person
0:33 wrote anxiety is a monster that is
0:35 crippling and paralyzing and keeps you
0:37 in a loop of debilitating negative
0:40 emotions even when one desperately wants
0:42 out what are the causes what can one do
0:44 to help themselves what steps big or
0:47 small do you suggest well the the
0:50 neurophysiology of anxiety is pretty
0:52 well understood but I don't think
0:55 understanding it in any detail really
0:58 helps you there are drugs you can take
1:01 to mitigate the effects of anxiet iety I
1:03 should say upfront I have have no
1:05 clinical experience and this is not my
1:08 area I would think that if anxiety is
1:11 really crippling there's some role for
1:14 drugs to play whether it's beta blockers
1:17 that impede the effect of adrenaline on
1:19 your heart rate so you don't get the
1:22 racing heart experience or anti-anxiety
1:26 drugs that work on the neurotransmitter
1:28 Gaba but in general the people who work
1:31 with anxiety therap tically to my
1:33 understanding don't recommend you take
1:35 those drugs and that you do something
1:37 more along the line of cognitive
1:39 behavioral therapy which is to say you
1:41 you expose yourself in manageable ways
1:46 to the things that provoke anxiety and
1:50 you reframe them conceptually you become
1:52 open to feeling the effects of anxiety
1:55 and realize you can get through it and
1:57 there's certainly a role for meditation
1:59 and mindfulness to play in this part of
2:00 the process
2:02 for instance many people are afraid to
2:05 fly and even those of us who aren't
2:07 especially afraid to fly can feel
2:11 anxious in significant turbulence now
2:13 why do we feel anxious well we have some
2:16 thought that turbulence might be
2:18 dangerous right that it makes it more
2:20 likely the plane will
2:24 crash and of course truly significant
2:27 turbulence can cause a plane to crash
2:29 but this as we know from the statistics
2:32 of plane crashes is a very very rare
2:35 thing so there there are two levels to
2:39 respond to this experience so as to
2:41 mitigate anxiety so picture this you're
2:45 in an airplane and it begins to bounce
2:48 now unless you're in that rare and
2:51 horrible experience of being actually
2:53 thrown around the cabin so as to get
2:55 injured it's very likely that the
2:58 bouncing is not physically painful right
3:01 this is you're not being being harmed by
3:04 this sensation and in other context you
3:06 would subject yourself to even more
3:08 violent bouncing and not be worried
3:10 about it at all you might go on some
3:14 ride at an amusement park which exerts
3:17 greater force on you bodily and you do
3:19 it because you're seeking that
3:22 experience out now on an airplane it's
3:23 totally unwelcome to you because you're
3:26 afraid of dying but if you just take the
3:28 raw Sensations they are not your problem
3:30 it's what they port prend is your
3:33 interpretation of them that worries you
3:35 there are at least two levels at which
3:39 you can deal with this first is to think
3:41 conceptually about the nature of the
3:43 problem and about what you fear is it
3:46 rational to worry that your plane will
3:49 crash if you're experiencing turbulence
3:52 no it actually isn't the likelihood of
3:56 dying in a plane crash is minuscule over
3:57 the course of your journey you should
3:59 begin to worry as you leave leave the
4:03 airport and get in an Uber or a taxi or
4:05 drive yourself home in your own car
4:07 that's when your risk of mortality
4:11 begins to Peak so if you understand that
4:14 if you understand that every moment in a
4:18 plane is in fact safer than many moments
4:21 you spend on the ground certainly safer
4:24 than when you're walking as a pedestrian
4:27 fixated on your smartphone and stepping
4:30 into the crosswalk that's
4:32 when your adrenaline should surge or
4:34 when you're driving and glancing down at
4:37 your phone to see what text just came in
4:40 those are the moments where the sweat
4:43 should begin beating up on your forehead
4:45 so when you're in a plane and it's begun
4:48 to bounce it is in fact unreasonable to
4:51 worry that the bouncing means much of
4:53 anything if you understand that that
4:55 actually can have an effect then you can
4:58 become willing to just experience the
5:01 raw sensations of turbulence then you
5:04 can cease to interpret the experience as
5:07 a sign of actual danger the other level
5:09 which you can address this and and these
5:12 are totally compatible moves I recommend
5:14 both of them is to become mindful of the
5:19 feeling of anxiety itself what is it and
5:21 what does it mean well it's just
5:24 sensation it's just a pattern of energy
5:25 in your
5:28 body and it actually doesn't mean
5:32 anything at the level of raw sensation
5:35 you might have thoughts about it and
5:36 very likely much of your thinking in
5:39 that moment is purposed toward trying to
5:41 figure out how not to feel that way or
5:43 not to let it get worse but if you'll
5:46 step out of your thoughts and just
5:48 become willing to feel the raw sensation
5:51 of anxiety actually Just Surrender your
5:55 resistance to it just feel it as energy
5:58 it can lose its meaning it can become
6:01 very difficult to disting uish from what
6:03 under another framing would be a
6:07 positive experience like excitement how
6:09 do you know the difference between being
6:11 anxious about something that's about to
6:14 happen and being excited for the most
6:17 part it is the thoughts you're thinking
6:19 when you're feeling that arousal there's
6:22 a cognitive conceptual overlay on top of
6:25 this raw feeling you can consciously
6:28 reframe things or you can step out of it
6:30 all together and just feel
6:32 the raw energy of this experience and
6:35 when you do that anxiety can be like any
6:38 other experience that has no meaning for
6:40 you as a person really I mean it doesn't
6:43 say anything about you so something like
6:45 indigestion or itching let's say you're
6:48 let's say you have a rash on your elbow
6:51 and it's itching okay that doesn't say
6:54 anything deep about you as a person that
6:57 has no psychological implications it
6:58 might be unpleasant it might be
7:00 extraordinarily unpleasant but it
7:02 doesn't reach into your sense of who you
7:05 are the deepest way to respond to
7:08 anxiety and again I'm not saying that
7:11 there is no case in which drugs are
7:14 valuable or even necessary there may
7:18 very well be but for anxiety in its more
7:21 ordinary range the Deep way to respond
7:23 to it is to become willing to feel it to
7:28 cease to interpret it as important and
7:29 to function
7:33 in the midst of it and then it will pass
7:35 anxiety Rises and Falls like any other
7:37 emotion and if you're not continually
7:39 thinking the thoughts that make you
7:42 anxious it actually can't stay around
7:44 very long and this is true of other
7:46 unpleasant emotions like anger and
7:48 sadness and they're continually
7:51 resurrected by our thoughts and we are
7:52 spending most of our time thinking
7:55 without knowing that we're thinking so
7:57 mindfulness in particular is a very good
7:59 antidote to this problem but the trick
8:02 is you can't apply it as an antidote you
8:05 can't be mindful of anxiety so that it
8:09 will go away you can't push it away with
8:12 meditation or at least that attempt is
8:14 more likely to fail what you're really
8:15 after in those moments is genuine
8:19 equinity real acceptance of the energy
8:22 of this emotion become interested in it
8:25 become willing to feel it just let it
8:29 burn bright in you and discover that it
8:33 doesn't matter simply comes and it goes
