Why oh why anxiety. You've been my buddy my whole life, but you're starting to run the show. Stop it!

That's exactly what we're doing today. We're going to be discussing why faulty anxiety signals occur and how we can retrain our brains to distinguish between real and false anxiety and how to retrain it.

Anxiety is a natural response to stress and danger, and it can be beneficial in small doses. But when anxiety becomes excessive, it can start to interfere with our daily lives. In fact, faulty anxiety signals can cause us to feel anxious even when there is no real danger present. This can lead to a range of problems, including panic attacks, phobias, and OCD.

Anxiety is designed to keep us safe. It is an alarm system that alerts us when we are in danger, prompting us to take action to protect ourselves. Without anxiety, we would be more prone to making dangerous mistakes, as we would be less aware of potential threats.

For example, imagine you're walking down a dark alley at night, where you see multiple people waiting for you to walk by. Your anxiety kicks in, telling you that you're in danger and prompting you to be more aware of your surroundings. This heightened awareness can help you avoid any potential threats and keep you safe.

Anxiety can also be beneficial in other situations. For example, if you're preparing for an exam, a little bit of anxiety can motivate you to study harder and perform better. So, it's important to remember that anxiety is not always a bad thing. It's only when it becomes excessive and starts to interfere with our daily lives that it becomes a problem.

However, sometimes anxiety can backfire and throw off too many false signals. False anxiety signals occur when our brains perceive a threat that isn't actually present. This can cause us to feel anxious, even when there is no real danger.

False anxiety signals can be triggered by a range of things, including past traumatic events, negative thought patterns, or mental health issues such as OCD.

So, why do false anxiety signals occur? In short, they happen because our brains are wired to keep us safe, and sometimes they overreact to perceived threats. Our brains are designed to learn from experience, and if we've had a traumatic experience in the past, our brains may perceive similar situations as dangerous, even if they're not.

For others, it may be as simple as having a genetic component where your brain is wired a certain way. You don't even have to have trauma. It's as if the filter in your brain determining what's important and what's not is letting too much information in.

Think of an anxious child who is two years old. Most of the time they haven't experienced any trauma, they haven't had very many life experiences yet their brain is telling them they are potentially in danger. This goes to show how strong the brain can be faulty on its own.

It wants to keep you safe, but it's doing a really bad job. No matter why you have anxiety, I'm guessing you want it to stop.

This is why exposure and response prevention therapy can be so effective in retraining our brains to distinguish between real and false anxiety signals.

Exposure and response prevention therapy is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that is used to treat anxiety disorders. The goal of this therapy is to help individuals confront their fears and anxieties in a controlled environment, so they can learn to overcome them.

The first step in exposure and response prevention therapy is to identify the triggers that cause anxiety. This can be done through self-reflection or with the help of a therapist. Once the triggers have been identified, the individual is gradually exposed to them in a controlled environment. For example, if someone has a fear of flying, they may start by looking at pictures of planes and eventually work their way up to taking a short flight.

During exposure, the individual is encouraged to resist the urge to engage in the compulsive behaviors that typically accompany their anxiety. For example, someone with OCD may be encouraged to resist the urge to wash their hands after touching a doorknob. They're responding as if they don't care. Using phrases like, maybe, maybe not to any threat that comes their way. Over time, it can help individuals retrain their brains to distinguish between real and false anxiety signals.

Because you've essentially taught it that you're not going to respond to any threat unless you can physically see it.

There are many other techniques that can be used to manage anxiety, including mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and medication. However, exposure and response prevention therapy is (in my opinion) one of the most effective and evidence-based treatments available for anxiety disorders.

In short, anxiety is lying to you when you're not actually in danger. Of course, we don't know the future, and cannot predict what's going to happen, but that's OK. For someone to retrain their brain, they've decided that it's worth taking the risk and not do the compulsion.

Now I'm a guy that likes things simple. So here's what you do you make a list of all the anxiety threats that come to your mind rank them from 0 to 10 on how much they scare you. You then write out all the responses you're going to have. These are the things you're going to tell your brain that you don't care. The most common phrase is, maybe, maybe not. You could say cool, love it, sure, thanks for the thought today. I appreciate you trying to keep me safe but I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing.

We do this until the anxiety has dropped. If it doesn't drop, that's OK too ultimately, we are training the brain to see things differently.

If you were standing in the middle of the road, you see a really fast car coming at you, do you think you would have to question if you needed to get out-of-the-way? Probably not. This is that certainty that you can look for. If it is not completely evident that there's a problem, you're not falling for it.

Sometimes it doesn't seem possible but you can fix that faulty alarm system. I do take you through this with my online course. I'll leave that down in the description.