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Your heart pounds, your throat clenches, and your palms sweat.
But where anxiety disorders really start is in the brain.
Although doctors aren’t sure what causes anxiety disorders, they have theories.
The brain is a giant messaging system made up of billions of nerve cells, called neurons.
The neurons send and receive messages from the rest of your body with the help of chemicals, called neurotransmitters.
Many anxiety disorders happen when your neurotransmitters are out of balance, causing them to send the wrong messages to the body. Generalized anxiety disorder, or panic disorder, appears to be related to imbalances in neurotransmitters.
Another cause of anxiety disorders is when certain parts of the brain don’t work properly and send incorrect messages. Here are a few specifics:
Deep in the brain is the amygdala. It serves as a communications hub between areas of your brain connected with senses and areas of your brain where thoughts are processed.
In some people with anxiety disorders, especially phobias, the amygdala interprets messages from the senses as threats, causing fear.
Another anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, seems to arise in the hippocampus. This part of the brain helps store memories.
Traumatic experiences, such as military combat, childhood abuse, or a devastating accident, often result in a smaller-than-normal hippocampus.
This may explain associated flashbacks and nightmares.
The good news is that there are many forms of treatment that can help you cope with anxiety. They include talk therapy and medications that may improve how the brain communicates with the rest of the body.
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