0:00
what health anxiety actually is and how
0:02
to tell which loop you're in. We know
0:04
we've got this noisy part in our brain
0:05
that will spin on repeat when we're
0:08
obsessing about something that could
0:10
potentially be wrong with us and we're
0:11
afraid and we don't know what that is.
0:12
And some of us might even jump into
0:15
WebMDing ourselves, which is never a
0:17
healthy loop to get into. And we're also
0:19
going to talk about how treatment
0:20
approaches differ. Of course, because
0:22
I'm an EMDR therapist and this how I
0:24
treat patients, how this can really help
0:27
these symptoms. So let's talk about
0:29
first why panic and health anxiety get
0:31
confused. Panic and health anxiety look
0:34
similar on the surface because they do
0:36
share physical sensations. Uh both of
0:38
them can involve the that racing heart,
0:41
chest tightness, sometimes dizziness,
0:43
sometimes shortness of breath, maybe GI
0:46
distress like we have gas or
0:48
gastrointestinal issues, a sense of
0:51
alarm or vigilance and but what the body
0:54
is responding to is different in each
0:56
case. Panic is often sudden, intense,
1:00
and it's body driven. Whereas health
1:02
anxiety is often persistent cognitive
1:04
and vigilance driven. This is like in
1:07
our mind as opposed to physicality. One
1:09
is about loss and the other is about
1:11
prediction of threat. The body may feel
1:14
the same, but the nervous system
1:16
question is really different. And this
1:18
is how you can kind of tell the
1:19
difference for yourself. As we talked
1:21
about in the previous episode about
1:23
panic, panic comes from what Yak Pankep
1:26
calls the panic and grief system. And
1:28
most people don't know that. Most people
1:29
think that panic is about fear. Um but
1:32
the system activates in us this loss,
1:35
separation, attachment rupture or
1:38
threats to our safety through
1:40
disconnection. So when this system
1:42
fires, the body isn't asking, am I about
1:44
to die? It's asking am I alone? Am I
1:47
unsafe? or am I without support or am I
1:49
going to lose that support? And that's
1:51
why panic attacks can feel catastrophic
1:53
even when there's no danger. Uh there's
1:56
ancient mamillian alarms that are meant
1:58
to prevent loss of connection because
2:00
let's face it, we can't live well alone
2:03
if we're young. We need others to
2:06
survive and we depend on that for our
2:08
very survival. So panic is the body
2:11
responding to loss, not the mind
2:13
misinterpreting danger. Now health
2:16
anxiety lives in the fear
