(NaturalPath) According to a study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, people with anxiety fundamentally perceive the world differently. New research shows that people diagnosed with anxiety experience a behavioral phenomenon known as over-generalization. For instance, they are less able to distinguish between neutral, “safe” stimulus like tone of voice and one that was earlier associated with the threat of money loss or gain. This is in correlation to emotional experiences.
“We show that in patients with anxiety, emotional experience induces plasticity in brain circuits that lasts after the experience is over,” says one researcher. “Such plastic changes occur in primary circuits that later mediate the response to new stimuli, resulting in an inability to discriminate between the originally experienced stimulus and a new similar stimulus. Therefore, anxiety patients respond emotionally to such new stimuli as well, resulting in anxiety even in apparently irrelevant new situations. Importantly, they cannot control this, as it is a perceptual inability to discriminate.”
For more information, read the full study.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160303132951.htm
Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.