A good percentage of the people who contact me
has one problem in common: he would like to get rid of his own concerns excessive. Our concerns fluctuate from
fear for the existence of nuclear power plants up to concern for the sting
of a very small insect. Probably, Wayne is the one who knew
summarize this feeling in one perfect sentence: “worry is endemic to our culture”.
However, this does not mean that we live with the
worries is healthy, on the contrary. Normally a state of worry
chronic leads to vain attempts to control the surrounding environment by taking
a stand hypervigilant, which ends in provoking at best
serious problems with our ability to plan for our future (because it can
also help to trigger various diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or
cerebrovascular and cardiovascular accidents) chronic worry essere essere
inherent in people (in the US, according to the National Institute of Health
Mental, it is estimated that between 2 and 3% of the population suffer from it); only in
1980 this problem began to be seriously addressed. At that time, Thomas
Borkovec, a psychologist at the Pennsylvania State University, found that i
intrusive thoughts would be the main cause of insomnia.Borkovec, one of the
leading researchers in the field of human concern, suggested three big ones
sources of concern: recurring thoughts, avoidance of results
negatives and inhibition of emotions. Curiously, this psychologist found out
that people who tend to suffer from chronic worries tend to worry about events that rarely occur.In 2005, Stefan
Hoffmann, a psychologist at Boston University, used the EEG to measure activity
of the prefrontal cortex, before and after 27 students gave a talk
in public. In this way it was possible to prove that the activity of the cortex
left front increases when people worry, and for this reason
it is hypothesized that this area of ​​the brain plays an essential role in
In fact, many concerns
researchers have stated that as more we care about something as much
the more this idea becomes real and uncontrollable. In 1987 Daniel M. Wegner had
already found that many people, when they try to avoid thinking of one
specific theme, this ends to return again and again to the
their mind by producing theRebound effect.In this
experiment people were asked not to think of a white bear. THE
participants were left alone in a room with a microphone and a bell e
they had to talk about any topic of their choice. At a certain moment he would come
interrupted their speech and asked them not to think of a bear
White. Whenever the person thought of a white bear he had to play the
bell. On average, each participant rang the bell six times in the five
minutes after receiving the order. According to Wegner, the
main problem in the order of "not thinking" would be due to a mechanism
aware of avoidance; the idea continues in our mind and so do we
we continue to mull over the same concerns. Another mechanism a
unconscious level runs parallel to our conscious attempt to eliminate
unwanted thoughts and occurs in the fact that we assume an attitude
hypervigilant which sensitizes our brain to the issue that
we wish to avoid. In this case the amygdala and the anterior insula would be
the main culprits. In 2008 he came
published a study in the journal Psychological
Science, in which the brain activity of the participants was appreciated
when they were given the prospect of losing a lot of money. It was revealed then,
elevated activity of the anterior insula. The researchers concluded that this
brain region would be activated in response to concerns.
Curiously, in 2009, Jack Nitschke, a psychologist at the University of
Winsconsin, appreciated an activation of the amygdala when people were in
waiting to see images that disturbed them. So you know that
even if worries trigger our emotional circuits (basically
the amygdala and the insula), people suffering from chronic worry
they keep their emotional responses in check, which is why they do
postulates that the true underlying brain mechanism of chronic worry
roots in the frontal lobe.This distinction
it is very important as there are many specialists who suggest that the
people with chronic worries would compromise physiological capacity
of the body to react to traumatic events, so that they would be more likely to
have cardiovascular problems. The
specialists from the universities of Columbia and Leiden, who were able
appreciate how the state of chronic worry increases the heart rhythm a
rest but at the same time reduces the variability of the rhythm itself. In other
words, it takes their heart a lot longer to return to a normal rhythm
when an alteration of the rhythm itself occurs. As you can imagine,
these prolonged periods of stress debilitate the functioning of the system
immune and endocrine.
