Anxiety as Smoke Detector...

For those of us who deal with Anxiety on a daily basis, it can be important to remember that our Amygdala (you know, that part of your brain that monitors the environment for danger and sends out the alert) is like a Smoke Detector.  It is very important when there is, in fact, smoke or fire present.  It is more of a serious pain in the ass, though, when it sends out the alert to the rest of your body when there is simply a lot of steam from a hot shower!  If your Amygdala is super sensitive you have to learn how to take that extra half of a second to notice if you actually smell smoke or feel the heat of the fire before you take action.  You don't want to go running out to the street in just your towel if there really isn't any danger now, do you?

So here are three things you can do if you have a super sensitive amygdala:

1. When the alarm starts going off, take a moment and pause.  Even if there is a real emergency, a half second is not going to make or break the situation!  
2. Notice if you smell smoke or feel the heat from the fire.  This is the step where you get the rational and reasonable part of your brain in on the action!  This is where you determine whether the "alert" is a true signal (there is a clear action to take) or whether it is just a false alarm.
3. If there is truly smoke or fire then take action; however, if the alert is simply going off because a situation "might" be causing you to feel uncomfortable at some point in the future (Anxiety loves to get us worked up over what "might" happen in the future), then take a step back, breath (deep breaths turn off the alert system), and go on about your business at hand.