Anxiety Problems are Attention Problems

[@broccoli-dev]

My biggest issue with my anxiety is probably 30% of my cognitive power is spent on things that either don't actually affect me or that I have no control over anyways. I'm quite literally dumber because I'm anxious.

[@foxybyproxy]

ha! i can relate to this..well described.

[@RahulRanjan674]

yes, like 50 tabs running in the background

[@hayleysmith5077]

Ask your endocrinologist about “ gaba supplements “ 750 mg three times per day hell toghether with l- theanine

[@tdang9528]

Very well explained and summarised and definitely my experience

[@scootyz1983]

Dr. Kruse, I want to thank you for your excellent talks. I repeatedly get valuable and useful information from your channel. You've helped me make improvements in my life and I always look forward to your videos. Thanks so much.

[@DrJohnKruse]

Thank you, it is encouraging to hear feedback like this.

[@bitofahumdinger]

Wow, so many nuggets of gold in this video. This confirms so much of what I’ve learned over the past few years. Struggled with so many “mystery illnesses” over the years, only recently realizing that I was AFRAID of taking my attention off of the symptoms. I had a breakthrough when I took a leap of faith to focus on what is in front my eyes, not what is going on in my head or body. I rarely get POTS anymore and that was a huge issue for me. Sounds like I shifted from amygdala activation to prefrontal cortex like you to talk about in the video. This is also relevant to having ADHD as I remember in school being so stuck inside my head with worry that I would miss so much of what was being taught. Even missing things like social cues. Makes me think of my dad angrily telling me to “THINK” before I did something, which brings me to my question. There’s a video of Gabor Mate talking about ADHD, saying more or less that it’s a hyper-vigilance issue. I think that somewhat goes along with this video but I’m also wondering your thoughts on this. I know that hyper-vigilance and fear of angering a parent has played a huge role in my ADHD. I may have been born with some degree of ADHD but the way my father reacted to my behavior undoubtedly pushed me further into the zone of being diagnosable. I’m wondering how often you see this in your practice. It’s tricky too because as a child, I really didn’t know how to express why I had the fear I did. And I was also too afraid to even express any outward emotion really, even with psychologists I was seeing. Is this true ADHD? I am medicated for ADHD and this has helped my anxiety more than SSRIs ever did. There are so many pieces of the puzzle here but things are starting to make more sense. Thanks for the awesome content!

[@DrJohnKruse]

I think that there is an important kernel of truth in what Gabor Mate says, that resonates very strongly with many individuals who present with symptoms of ADHD. But I think in many of his writings and speaking he goes overboard in a blame-the-parents-its-all-due-to-trauma approach. There are many individuals with ADHD who grew up in loving households that were well tailored to addressing their needs, and they still have ADHD. Most often stimulants will over-activate someone with a history of significant trauma. So now I'll be the one oversimplifying, but if stimulants are helping with a range of ADHD symptoms, that to me is highly suggestive of a "real" fundamental ADHD issue, and not just a trauma-induced mimic of ADHD symptoms.

[@bitofahumdinger]

@@DrJohnKruse Thanks for the response. I've been wondering about this for a while. Seems to me that a lot of these videos that go viral (like the Gabor Mate video) have this kind of all or nothing thinking, when the real story is never that black and white.

[@DrJohnKruse]

@@bitofahumdinger One of my mottos is that if you're not celebrating nuance, you're probably creating new angst.

[@Ocean1688]

Thank you for this! Completely resonate with it and gave me an ah-ha moment.

[@DrJohnKruse]

@@Ocean1688 I'm glad that it helped.

[@Herbst1984-sg7qr]

Spot on! Thanks for bringing up so important topics!

[@blueberrydays5569]

100% i feel like most of my adhd benefit from strattera was due mostly to anxiolytic effect

[@johnp.3225]

Can less dopamine also lead to anxiety?

[@DrJohnKruse]

I usually feel ambivalent about trying to answer questions like this. How do we know that these individuals have "less dopamine" , and if they do, less dopamine where? Are we lowering tonic/longterm-onoging dopamine release, or episodic dopamine release? In general, our biggest class of dopamine lowering drugs, the antipsychotics, are not particularly known for leading to anxiety. On the other hand, anything that disrupts what your own body has been used to can trigger panic attacks and anxiety in vulnerable people.