On Anxiety And Rabbitry

A little window into the process of what is happening to them:

Earlier this year, I suffered my first major panic attack. For days afterward, my heart would race and my mind would fill with doomsday visions as I worried about everything around me, including whether I’d have more panic attacks and if I’d ever be able to stop them.

Knowing that it wasn’t just me, however, was strangely reassuring

Look closer at the programming loop. They have a panic attack, and then the sensation of the panic attack hits their amygdala, the attack sets worse, the worsening triggers the amygdala, it gets even more powerful, that sets things off even more, and it all feeds into itself, growing exponentially.

Now imagine if you felt the sensation, and said you yourself, “Yeah, this is a good amygdala workout! My brain is going to grow stronger. It is just like the burn of a muscle when lifting weights. Man, I am going to kick ass after this!” Imagine if you could make yourself like the sensation, and focus on the good it would do. It would disrupt that programming loop, and the hijack would actually diffuse itself.

Then there is this:

I sleep with my phone, or right next to it. It’s generally the first thing I look at in the morning, and the last thing I look at before I go to bed. And I know that’s bad; it makes me feel bad. I started turning off my ringer so I wouldn’t immediately respond to texts or calls, including those that woke me in the middle of the night.

I also installed an app called Moment, which told me I should spend less time looking at apps on my phone. I have to admit, when I do this I feel more able to handle the world around me, including my Twitter feed, which I ultimately removed from my phone. (This really did wonders, not least because reading the news was no longer the very first thing I did each morning.)

“It is important that you get off the devices and try to spend time with people you care about and not only be interacting around these topics,” Dr. Simon said.

Dopamine is making them high, and the comedown leaves their amygdala jumpy. They cut the dopamine, and it reduces the swings.

It is a testament to how powerful and neurologically engrossing our technology is becoming. Interacting with it is literally like mainlining pharmaceutical-grade drugs right into your bloodstream. Imagine what it will be like when we have holograms, and interactive 3D virtual realities.

I suspect it will cull a lot of rabbits.

And more:

I plod to the gym regularly, and it’s true: Even if I don’t feel great when I’m there, I feel much better once I’ve gone — especially when I’m engaging in exercises like yoga or SoulCycle, where I can’t watch CNN or glance at my phone. The endorphins are nice, but also, it’s a chance to regain a sense of control, if only of your own body. (As always, check with a doctor before beginning any new or intense exercise regimens.)

So what reverses the process is an activity where they have to confront physical pain, which is amygdala-stimulating, and view it as something beneficial to their future, and tolerate it for a set amount of time. I will bet exercise is helping as much through reprogramming their brain as any physical change. I will also bet you could tell them to strap themselves to a table, attached to electrodes, and willingly tolerate electrical shocks for thirty minutes, and their moods would improve immensely too. That is likely the process they are benefitting from, even more than the physical benefits.

Pleasure produces pain, and pain produces pleasure. Learn the lesson, and use it to model your brain.

Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because amygdala is good for you, and the people you inflict it on