Anxiety: Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Brian D. Ott, Ph.D.
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Harvard Medical School
• Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

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• Audience Participation

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• What just happened?

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Body Response
• Behavioral Response
• Beliefs

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Body Response
• Behavioral Response
• Beliefs

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Body Response
• Behavioral Response
• Beliefs

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Were you feeling anxiety or fear?

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Anxiety or Fear?
Fear helps you stay alive in an immediately
dangerous situation.
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Anxiety or Fear?
Anxiety gets you ready for an immediately
dangerous situation
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Anxiety or Fear?
that may not be as likely to happen or dangerous
as you think.
And
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Anxiety or Fear?
interferes with living your life.
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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• same kind of response
• but
• fear helps us move through life
• anxiety gets in our way

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Lots-O-Labels
• Phobia
• Panic Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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Anxiety Body, Behavior, and Beliefs

• Lots-O-Labels
• Phobia
• Panic Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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Johnny and Max
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Johnny and Max
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Johnny and Max
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• It doesnt make sense.
• Its just a fence, a bell, a building.
• Nothing bad about them,
• but I cant stop the feeling.
• Why cant I talk myself out of this?

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Phobias

• Answer

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Phobias
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Johnny and Max
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Johnny and Max
Trigger Bodys Emergency Response System
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• It doesnt make sense.
• Its just a fence, a bell, a building.
• Nothing bad about them,
• but I cant stop the feeling.
• Why cant I talk myself out of this?

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Phobias

• So how do we help Johnny?

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Phobias

• So how do we help Johnny?
• How do we stop pooch drooling?

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Phobias

• So how do we help Johnny?
• How do we stop pooch drooling?
• How do we stop Brian Ott drooling?

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Phobias
Talk some sense into me!
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Phobias

• Solution

Hide the meat and ring that bell.
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Johnny and Max
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Phobias
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Phobias
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Problem
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Phobias

• More you avoid, the more you will avoid.
• The more you avoid, the less chance of
  conditioned response extinction.

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Phobias

• Solution

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Phobias

• What have we learned so far?
• Part of anxiety has to do with a learned physical
  reflex - the BODY on Automatic
• Conditioned body reactions have to be reduced by
  a change in BEHAVIOR All action, no talk.
• Need to move in small steps towards the situation
  starting at a middle level of anxiety.

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Johnny and Max
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Panic Disorder

• What is a Panic Attack?
• Whats the difference between a
• Phobia and a Panic Attack?

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Panic Disorder
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Panic Disorder

• Involves one of three concerns
• Losing control (usually in public)
• Going crazy
• Dying

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Panic Disorder

• Seems perfectly reasonable.

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Panic Disorder
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Panic Disorder
Panic Attack
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Panic Disorder

• What to do with a Panic Attack?
• Cant Overcome a Strong Rush of Adrenaline
• Distraction and Relaxation often make things
  worse.
• (note do relaxation techniques when feeling
  good)
• Cant beat them, join them.

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Panic Disorder
Panic Attack
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Social Phobia
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Social Phobia

• Can have
• BOTH
• Conditioned Responses
• AND
• Anxiety Triggering Thoughts

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Social Phobia
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Social Phobia

• BELIEFS can trigger a false alarm of
• the bodies emergency system
• when expectations dont match experience

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Social Phobia
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Social Phobia

• When predicting a catastrophe, ask yourself
• Am I being a good bookie and a good actuary
• In my experience is the likelihood of the
  emergency
• Is the damage estimate correct

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Social Phobia

• If I look at MY personal experience,
• what are the odds a catastrophe will occur?
• If the catastrophe does occur,
• how bad will it be for me?

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Social Phobia

• If the belief is accurate find a way to cope
  with a bad situation.
• But
• If the belief is inaccurate time to create a
  new belief about the situation that better
  matches your experience.

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Take Home Messages

• When anxious
• First ask how much Body conditioning
• and how much Beliefs?

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Social Phobia

• For Body conditioning
• Build a staircase
• Ring the bell
• Keep ringing the bell until calm down
• Then go a bit farther up the staircase

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Social Phobia

• For beliefs, the thinking part
• Think about the horse race and hurricanes
• Ask self is what expecting match what I know has
  happened in the past?
• If yes, use your coping skills
• If no, build a new Belief based on experience

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