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Newsweek - February 24, 2003
Coping With Anxiety
Science shows that meditation, massage, yoga
--even laughter --can change bad habits in the brain
Author: Claudia Kalb -With Anne Underwood, Karen Springen and
Vanessa Juarez
There's Cipro, potassium iodide and the smallpox vaccine to ward off
biological agents. But is there an antidote to anxiety? "I'm very
frightened,"said Julie White, as she exited Manhattan's Sonic Yoga last week.
But she has a remedy: the stretching and deep breathing of yoga. The practice is
so calming that after the terror upgrade, White made an upgrade of her own--from
one class a day to two. Yoga, she says, "is my tranquilizer."
You may find the lotus pose hopelessly warm and fuzzy in the face of terror.
But there are a host of activities, from working out to going for a massage,
that can temper the anxiety. Many of these techniques have been used for
decades, if not centuries; now advances in science are showing they can reduce
the hormones associated with stress and even affect brain activity. The common
trait among all: maintaining control and recognizing that our concerns are a
natural response to the world we live in. "We're justified in having this fear,"says Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Boston.
"Life was stressful before 9-11. It's gotten progressively worse."
The first step toward combating fear is identifying it. Keep in mind that
headaches, stomachaches, sleeplessness and rapid heartbeat are all symptoms of
anxiety. Confront the emotion head-on by naming it, even saying, "I feel
fear about this,"says Saki Santorelli, executive director of the University of
Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness. Acknowledging anxiety
makes us less passive, less vulnerable and, as a result, more able to cope.
Understand that fear is a component of stress, the complex fight-or-flight
response ingrained in us since the cave days. When we're confronted with danger,
epinephrine (adrenaline) starts pumping, the heart speeds up, blood pressure
increases, breathing quickens.
One of the most efficient ways to reduce stress is to focus inward on one
thing we can effectively control: our own breath. At the Mind/Body Medical
Institute, participants elicit a "relaxation response,"repeating a
word--anything from "om"to "Hail Mary"--silently as they exhale. In numerous
studies, Benson has found that the practice leads to lower blood pressure,
slower breathing and an overall calm. Richard Davidson at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison recently found that a form of meditative breathing pioneered
at the Center for Mindfulness can affect the brain. In a small, soon-to-be-published study, Davidson took brain images of 25 members of a biotech firm who
practiced meditation six days a week for eight weeks. He found increased
activation in the left side of the prefrontal part of the brain, an area
associated with lower anxiety, positive emotion and inhibition of the
amygdala, the brain's fear center.
If sitting in one position for more than five minutes sounds impossible, you
might try yoga. Concentrating on the physical intricacies of different poses
forces you to filter out the "endless tape loops of chatter and fear,"says Dr.
Timothy McCall, medical editor of Yoga Journal, allowing you to be present in
the moment. In so doing, you begin to clear the mind of future worries.
You can also reduce angst by deliberately altering the way you perceive the
world. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on identifying and changing
destructive thinking, is the gold standard for treating anxiety
disorders. Patients are encouraged to confront their worst fears--such as riding
an elevator--to prove to themselves that they can and will survive. That
experience helps get rid of distorted thinking, says Stanford University
psychiatrist Dr. David Burns. What to do in the face of terrorism? Accept your
anxiety, but don't let it control you. And certainly don't ruminate on
your own. "Anxiety feeds on itself,"says Dr. Paul Appelbaum, president
of the American Psychiatric Association, so talk to family and friends. "Sharing
the concern with others can be enormously helpful."
Scientists are finding that it can help to get outside your head completely.
In a study of 60 schoolchildren traumatized by Hurricane Andrew, Tiffany Field,
director of the University of Miami's Touch Research Institute, found that
depression dropped in kids who received 30 minutes of massage twice a week for a
month; kids who watched a relaxing video showed no improvement. And cortisol
levels, the body's marker for stress, declined significantly in the massage
group compared with controls. If massage isn't your thing, go for a vigorous
walk, swim or bike ride. Exercise is not only good at keeping you fit, it
reduces anxiety and depression, too.
It may be difficult, but in troubled times, researchers say, people need to
take comfort from life's simplest pleasures. In a small study at the University
of Rochester School of Medicine, Dr. O. J. Sahler found that bone-marrow
transplant patients who listened to music reported less pain and nausea, and
their transplants took less time to become functional. And, yes, laughter may be
good medicine, too. Dr. Lee Berk, of the Loma Linda University School of Public
Health, discovered that a group of students who watched a comic video for an
hour had marked reductions in epinephrine and cortisol levels. "If fear is too
great,"says Berk, "send in the clowns."Now that's something we can all
meditate on. |
