Dr. Alok 'Dr. K' Kanojia

For two reasons.

The first is that the duration and intensity of anxiety in an anxiety disorder are both higher.

The second thing is that technically the anxiety does expire, but you create new anxiety through things like rumination.

Rumination isn't the propagation.

So when I create an anxiety thought, this is what happens, right?

The thought starts, anxiety increases, and then it goes down.

The problem with rumination is in the middle, I start creating another thought, and then this will happen, and then this will happen, and then this will happen.

It's not that you don't have homeostasis.

It's that the process of rumination is creating additional thoughts, which is what creates the spiral.

We must be precise about this.

Your anxiety will go away.

That's why stopping rumination becomes really important.

We have a whole video about that.

It's a whole topic in and of itself.

The key thing is that the more you distract yourself, the more the anxiety is going to build up and the more of it that you're going to have when you go to sleep.

So for some amount of time, and this is where you can meditate, you can exercise, you can go for a walk and let the anxiety flow, baby.

Going for a walk is great.

Going for an hour-long walk

really good for your anxiety.

Spending time with animals, really good for your anxiety.