Is your anxiety a bad habit? | Neuroscientist Dr Judson Brewer

Part 1 of an exclusive How To Academy talk. Watch part 2 here: • Is anxiety contagious?...
Drawing upon more than 20 years of research into anxiety and the addictive behaviour it drives, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Judson Brewer joins us in an exclusive How To Academy talk, with a solution-oriented way to calm our agitated brains and regain focus.
Judson Brewer MD, PhD, is an internationally renowned addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist. He is an associate professor in the School of Public Health, and Medical School at Brown University. His 2016 TED talk, A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit, has been viewed over 16 million times. He has trained Olympic athletes and coaches, government ministers and business leaders. His first book, The Craving Mind, was published in over 16 languages.
On KZbin, his appearances on TED (A simple way to break a bad habit), TEDx Talks (You’re already awesome, just get out of your own way), Rich Roll (Breaking bad habits, a neuroscientist on unwinding anxiety), Tom Bilyeu (behavioural neuroscientist shows you how to break the coronavirus anxiety cycle), Lewis Howes (All successful people break these bad habits), Palouse Mindfulness (Measuring Mindfulness), and his own channel DrJud (5 Finger breathing, everyday addictions, understanding coronavirus anxiety) have amassed tens of millions of views combined.
Matthew Stadlen is a broadcaster, writer and regular How To Academy host. Previously he was an LBC presenter, wrote The Matthew Stadlen Interview for the Telegraph and presented the TV series Five Minutes With and On The Road With for the BBC. He is a birdwatcher and photographer, and his book How To See Birds is out now. Twitter: @matthewstadlen

[@tarasierralee]

Dr Brewer's book, Unwinding Anxiety, and app are amazing. He has helped me immensely. Understanding the neuroscience (which he explains really well) makes all the difference for me. When Dr Brewer explained that anxiety can be viewed as an addiction to perseveration about the future (and depression as addiction to perseveration about the past) - LIGHTBULBS! The neural pathways at work in addiction (addiction = unhealthy habit) are the same as the pathways at work with anxiety and depression. Mindfulness/awareness/curiosity is the way to break bad habits. TRY IT! What do you have to lose?

[@jaspernba3242]

Just curious during a panic attack does anyone else get the feeling of a weak heart

[@tarasierralee]

Yes. A panic attack often mimics the symptoms of a heart attack or a stroke. It's your fight/flight response on overdrive.

[@gedman9527]

Yes me to palpitations etc

[@doikleberry]

Anxiety can be caused by many things, habit, underlying physiological problems, high levels of stress, food intolerance, the list gos on. Ridiculous to say all anxiety is caused by habit though. More important to figure out which the most predominant cause is

[@tarasierralee]

At the very end Dr Brewer explains how Fear (triggered in the amygdala) + uncertainty (result of pre-frontal cortex not having enough information to predict the future) = ANXIETY. FEAR + UNCERTAINTY = ANXIETY. Curiosity and awareness can help us navigate the uncertainty to reduce anxiety. It really is that simple. Hard to do at first, but daily practice really does work.

[@nivekvb]

Man, I have chronic anxiety and now I have chronic gastritis too, causing even more anxiety. This interview looks good!

[@jdt8983]

I've spent my whole life trying to mitigate mine. Personally - a combination of 2 things helps me avoid an SSRI. Although I do take an SARI for sleep. .but no noticeable side effects. Anyways - not sure if this helps anyone out there but mine is about perfectionism. So I lean into and really admit all the moments I'm very ashamed of myself (no matter how silly some of them seem). I don't try to reframe like CBT says although that's cool. I just purely admit when without cover up. And vitamin B-6 supplementation is pretty good

[@ashwinigautam7282]

1st

[@janklaas6885]

🇺🇳12:59

[@carolkesselman7410]

Panick is over whelmed wake up wit a flight and run

[@h2ear540]

Anxiety is not a habit!!

[@rubyblu21]

Dr Judson isnt the only established and highly experienced professional in this field to be discussing anxiety and other such dysfunctional behaviours for what they are.

[@snakesandpsychology]

I actually agree with you. Anxiety isn't an action. You can't "do" anxiety. I wasn't particularly impressed by this discussion to be honest. If other people have gained benefit from it though, that's good.

[@dylanwynroberts]

The anxiety is the general symptom of your behaviours that you do, to get rid of the anxiety. Fear is normal - ie if Mike Tyson came up to you and threatened you - you’d feel fear, which is normal.