This is the safest time in human history. So why are we all so afraid?
...
If someone opens fire at a concert you're attending, you experience fear. But if you're at a concert and you're worried that a shooting attack could occur there, that's anxiety.
The biological difference, says LeDoux, is the worry and nervousness that we label as anxiety originate not in the amygdala, but predominantly in a small area of the stria terminalis – the pathway connecting the amygdala to the hypothalamus – known as the bed nucleus. It is this area that researchers believe is hyperactivated during generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety.
This may seem like a small distinction. But in actuality, it is everything. Because where fear is about a danger that seems certain, anxiety is, in LeDoux's words, "an experience of uncertainty."
And guess what disinhibits your Stria Terminalis? Systemic Endotoxin. Impaired breathing.
Anxiety is a symptom of illness.
Which is common in the elderly.
Yeah, this guy probably could have used that information.
Author dies after diagnosing himself with ‘Post-Trump Stress Disorder’
(I have thought about this since I was a small child.
This is how I described my screamwalking nightmares: "Nothing to fear. Just fear itself.")
