Dr. Alok 'Dr. K' Kanojia

It's going to be like the day can't be over yet because then we're going to have twice as much stuff to do more.

It's going to keep you awake.

Increase your pro sleep signals.

Because if I tell you don't distract yourself from your anxiety, your response is going to be, then how the hell am I supposed to do anything?

I will be completely non-functional if I don't distract myself from my anxiety.

I get that.

I do.

I've had tons of patients who will tell me that.

Dr. K, I can't distract myself.

If I don't distract myself, then I'm not going to get anything done.

Turns out that that's not the case.

Okay?

So here's the cool thing.

If you don't distract yourself from your anxiety, you will start triggering homeostatic mechanisms.

What does this mean?

This means that anytime my body or brain feels an emotion, it automatically starts certain processes to turn the emotion off.

When I feel joy, that joy doesn't last forever.

So when I feel anxiety, this is going to be hard for people with anxiety disorders, but we'll talk about this, right?

It actually automatically expires.

Now, why would people with anxiety disagree with this?