– Discussing How Anxiety and Depression Affect the Brain Through Psychotherapy in Nashville, TN

Last Updated on May 4, 2023 by Chris Roberts

ADDRESSING BRAIN FUNCTIONING WITH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION THROUGH INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY IN NASHVILLE, TN

By: Chris Roberts, MACP, LPC-MHSP (Licensed Professional Counselor) Two Trees Counseling Nashville

Reference: “The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding how your brain makes you anxious and what you can do to change it. Second Edition,” by Margaret Wehrenberg. 2018. Norton Publishers

For those of us suffering with anxiety and depression, it can be enough just to make it through each day. We long for answers and relief from our symptoms, but typically we are just focused on making sure we accomplish the bare minimum of tasks to keep our life afloat. This is the quintessential cliché of surviving, rather than thriving.

RECOGNIZING THE HARSHNESS OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

But, to thrive with either one of the conditions (amongst many other symptoms and disorders that can negatively affect our lives), we will have to take extra steps to address these concerns. And these “extra steps” to those of us already suffering just seems impossible, laughable even. So, this article is for those of us who have a brief moment of calm in our lives, or who haven’t yet been overwhelmed by the devastating effects of anxiety or depression.

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE BRAIN WITH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION?

In a wonderfully updated book by Margaret Wehrenberg entitled, “The 10 Best Ever Anxiety Management Techniques,” Ms. Wehrenberg spends the first full chapter outlining how the brain works and how it gets off-track with anxiety. This article isn’t long enough to go into detail about the specifics of brain functioning with anxiety and other symptoms, but she gives a lovely illustration for how the brain operates. She writes, “You know that there are radio waves and cell phone signals in the air all around you, but you need to have your equipment tuned in to make sense of the message. Once the signal is received, your equipment has to interpret and send information along. This is a metaphor for brain function. Different parts of the brain receive, send, interpret, and create responses to the signals they receive. The parts of the brain that are of most interest in discussing anxiety play those roles—receivers and relayers of information, coordinators and interpreters of signals that help to form a coherent picture of information, and parts of the brain that create new responses to information as it comes in. Different parts of the brain have different functions, but just as completing a call on a wireless phone requires the phone to receive a signal, interpret it, and then transmit back what you say, the parts of your brain all need to function smoothly for messages to be clearly received and sent.” (p.10)

WHAT DOES ALL THAT MEAN, EXACTLY?       

What research is showing us is that the brain and body are intricately linked and phenomenally complicated. It’s actually a wonder that we function well at all. For people suffering with anxiety and depression it means that there can be breakdowns in brain functioning in so many different areas of the brain. It is helpful to know how infinitely complicated the brain is in order to give ourselves a break about how “messed up” we might feel. Oftentimes, medicine is a necessary intervention in order to calm/slow our brains down enough to make effective use of the other tools we might be employing.

WHY PSYCHOTHERAPY CAN BE BENEFICIAL  

A qualified Nashville psychotherapist can help individuals process all the different options available to a person to help deal with anxiety and depression. Once we get enough symptom amelioration through coping skills or medication, we might then find there are other issues we need to work through or process to continue moving towards health. If you are interested in psychotherapy in Nashville, TN, Chris Roberts is available to speak with you about this area and others. Chris has helped many individuals navigate the treacherous terrain of anxiety and depression. You can contact Chris at chris@nashvillecounselor.net or (615) 800-9260.