Don't worry, your anxiety is not your fault
If you're somebody who just can't relax, quit stressing over it. All the herbal teas and yoga curls in the world probably won't change your basic nature. A new University of Wisconsin study suggests that your jittery brain has probably been wired that way since childhood.
The recent UW study, published last week in the Public Library of Science Web site, is the latest addition to a mounting trove of evidence that the brains of individuals who suffer from anxiety and extreme shyness are wired differently than those of their calmer peers. Even in situations most people would find relaxing, the brains of these keenly sensitive people appear to be stuck in a constant state of high alert. "The brain machinery underlying the stress response seems to be always on in these individuals," said Dr. Ned Kalin, the study's author. Kalin is chair of the UW-Madison Department of Psychiatry and director of the HealthEmotions Institute.
The research takes a close look at a tiny almond-shaped portion of the middle of the brain called the amygdala. Researchers are increasingly honing in on the amygdala as being an important player in the regulation of many key emotions, including fear.
Kalin's team of UW researchers compared levels of brain activity in the amygdala, as well as anxious behaviors and measurements of stress hormones, in a group of young rhesus monkeys. Monkeys have long been used as a model to understand emotional behavior in human children. First, the monkeys were graded and separated by temperament. Then they were observed and monitored as they reacted to a series of situations and environments, from the relative security of their cages to a scary visit from a strange human who stood silently by their cages. A year and a half later, the same monkeys were tested again.
A clear pattern emerged, Kalin said. Monkeys that researchers had rated as being especially shy or anxious before the experiments repeatedly showed higher levels of stress than a control group during the experiments. Anxiety was measured by the number of vocalizations, levels of the stress hormone cortisol and "freezing" behaviors. The anxious behaviors did not change over time as the tense monkeys grew up.
In another measure of anxiety, monkeys received an injection of FDG, a radioactive substance that lit up the active parts of their brains. Regardless of whether they were being threatened or not, brain scans revealed higher bursts of activity in the amygdalas of nervous monkeys. "This may be the most interesting part of our findings as it suggests a reason for why anxious individuals feel tense and over-aroused in situations that others find relaxing," Kalin said. "For example, some people with anxiety have difficulty sleeping and can't stop worrying. It may be that overactivity and other parts of the circuit account for this."
Kalin has long been an advocate for screening children for mental health problems. Currently he is studying whether the keenly sensitive circuitry measured in this study could lead to problems later in life not just with anxiety, but with depression and substance abuse. He believes this latest research is more evidence that some -- though certainly not all -- shy and anxious children may benefit from intervention.
Intervention doesn't necessarily mean a visit to the shrink, though. It could simply mean patience and understanding from parents.
"Being shy is common and not necessarily a bad thing," Kalin said. "If your child is shy, it doesn't mean he will develop problems later in life. The brain is a very changeable, plastic organ, especially during childhood and adolescence. Helping them to develop skills to become more social and outgoing can be very helpful."
