Dr. Martha Beck

If a bear came in here, we would both go, whoa, and we'd get very clear instructions from our biology teacher. To either fight, flee, freeze, you know, hide under the table. I would feed you to the bear probably.

You could totally take that bear.

You could totally take that bear.

No, you would win. Anyway, it would eat me and then you would win. Yeah. And then our fear, if we were like other animals, would subside. Yeah. That's normal fear. Anxiety, instead of being like shot from a cannon, it's like being haunted. Something bad happens, or we hear about something bad happening, and we get that jolt of fear.

No, you would win. Anyway, it would eat me and then you would win. Yeah. And then our fear, if we were like other animals, would subside. Yeah. That's normal fear. Anxiety, instead of being like shot from a cannon, it's like being haunted. Something bad happens, or we hear about something bad happening, and we get that jolt of fear.

But instead of acting and then relaxing, we turn it into a verbal story. So a group of psychologists, I think in the 90s, decided to try to figure out why humans, of all animals, are the only ones who commit suicide on a regular basis. And what they found out, the answer is language.

But instead of acting and then relaxing, we turn it into a verbal story. So a group of psychologists, I think in the 90s, decided to try to figure out why humans, of all animals, are the only ones who commit suicide on a regular basis. And what they found out, the answer is language.

We humans have the capacity to use language to create an abstract vision of the future that is more horrifying than the prospect of our own death. We choose death over the story of fear that we carry in our minds. And the spiral happens because there's a jolt of fear, then a story about the fear.

We humans have the capacity to use language to create an abstract vision of the future that is more horrifying than the prospect of our own death. We choose death over the story of fear that we carry in our minds. And the spiral happens because there's a jolt of fear, then a story about the fear.

And then there's a story about how we have to control the world so that we won't be in danger anymore. And we have to control our loved ones so they won't be in danger. And we have to control. We just have to control. But we, honest to God, really can't control very much. So then we get worried. We get even more scared. And that feeds back into these primitive brain structures that say fear.

And then there's a story about how we have to control the world so that we won't be in danger anymore. And we have to control our loved ones so they won't be in danger. And we have to control. We just have to control. But we, honest to God, really can't control very much. So then we get worried. We get even more scared. And that feeds back into these primitive brain structures that say fear.

And then it creates a bigger story and a more control efforts, and it goes up and up and up. And it doesn't go down because that part of the brain has a very peculiar, I don't know how this evolved. It has this tendency to truly believe that nothing but itself exists.

And then it creates a bigger story and a more control efforts, and it goes up and up and up. And it doesn't go down because that part of the brain has a very peculiar, I don't know how this evolved. It has this tendency to truly believe that nothing but itself exists.

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, a little bit.

All right, so you've got your brain, and it's symmetrical, right? Yeah. To mirror image, there's something in the middle called the corpus callosum that connects it. And I'm about to vastly oversimplify, and I'm not a neuroscientist, so neurologists, I beg you to forgive me.

All right, so you've got your brain, and it's symmetrical, right? Yeah. To mirror image, there's something in the middle called the corpus callosum that connects it. And I'm about to vastly oversimplify, and I'm not a neuroscientist, so neurologists, I beg you to forgive me.

I know that the whole brain is working almost all the time, and that left-right simplifications about the hemispheres of the brain are oversimplifications. Nevertheless, there are very dramatic differences between what happens, and so I'm going to talk to those.

I know that the whole brain is working almost all the time, and that left-right simplifications about the hemispheres of the brain are oversimplifications. Nevertheless, there are very dramatic differences between what happens, and so I'm going to talk to those.

So on the left side, you have this thing called the anxiety spiral, where there's a little tiny part of your brain called the amygdala, and it's very primitive. Every animal with a spine has one of these or something very close to it. And its job is to make you safe by being alarmed when you see unfamiliar things. It feeds information to layers of the brain that are also ancient but not as old.