Dr. Martha Beck

It is never in a form that you can address in the present. It's always saying things about something that's happening somewhere else, somewhere on the line of time. And for that reason, it's never real. It's never present, and it's never true.

It is never in a form that you can address in the present. It's always saying things about something that's happening somewhere else, somewhere on the line of time. And for that reason, it's never real. It's never present, and it's never true.

Well, there is that. No question. We are like over-diagnosing ourselves and over-assigning diagnoses to everything that happens. But it's also true that even the World Health Organization, looking with fairly objective tests, as objective as you can get, has shown a dramatic rise in the number of people who are suffering crippling clinical levels of anxiety and

Well, there is that. No question. We are like over-diagnosing ourselves and over-assigning diagnoses to everything that happens. But it's also true that even the World Health Organization, looking with fairly objective tests, as objective as you can get, has shown a dramatic rise in the number of people who are suffering crippling clinical levels of anxiety and

Well, there is that. No question. We are like over-diagnosing ourselves and over-assigning diagnoses to everything that happens. But it's also true that even the World Health Organization, looking with fairly objective tests, as objective as you can get, has shown a dramatic rise in the number of people who are suffering crippling clinical levels of anxiety and

as diagnosed by independent observers. So that went up by 25% during the pandemic and has continued to rise since the pandemic. The reason for that, as I found when I started to study it, is that anxiety only goes in one direction. It always goes up. It never reverses for reasons very particular to the human brain.

as diagnosed by independent observers. So that went up by 25% during the pandemic and has continued to rise since the pandemic. The reason for that, as I found when I started to study it, is that anxiety only goes in one direction. It always goes up. It never reverses for reasons very particular to the human brain.

as diagnosed by independent observers. So that went up by 25% during the pandemic and has continued to rise since the pandemic. The reason for that, as I found when I started to study it, is that anxiety only goes in one direction. It always goes up. It never reverses for reasons very particular to the human brain.

Right. So if you've gone over a tire ripper leaving a parking lot and there are these teeth and when you go forward, they get smooshed under your wheels. But if you go back, they'll rip you apart. So it's a one way process.

Right. So if you've gone over a tire ripper leaving a parking lot and there are these teeth and when you go forward, they get smooshed under your wheels. But if you go back, they'll rip you apart. So it's a one way process.

Right. So if you've gone over a tire ripper leaving a parking lot and there are these teeth and when you go forward, they get smooshed under your wheels. But if you go back, they'll rip you apart. So it's a one way process.

In our brains, we have two things that make us capable of spinning anxiety up and up and up and largely unable to bring it down, down, down, although that is possible, eminently possible. And the two things are something called the negativity bias, which I also call the 15 puppies and a cobra syndrome. If you went into a room...

In our brains, we have two things that make us capable of spinning anxiety up and up and up and largely unable to bring it down, down, down, although that is possible, eminently possible. And the two things are something called the negativity bias, which I also call the 15 puppies and a cobra syndrome. If you went into a room...

In our brains, we have two things that make us capable of spinning anxiety up and up and up and largely unable to bring it down, down, down, although that is possible, eminently possible. And the two things are something called the negativity bias, which I also call the 15 puppies and a cobra syndrome. If you went into a room...

and notice 15 puppies and a cobra, where would all your attention go? It would go to the most frightening thing in the room because that's an evolutionary survival adaptation. The problem is that when you see anything in your environment at all, you are likely to interpret it as something dangerous or negative because all brains have that, all mammalian brains have that negativity bias.

and notice 15 puppies and a cobra, where would all your attention go? It would go to the most frightening thing in the room because that's an evolutionary survival adaptation. The problem is that when you see anything in your environment at all, you are likely to interpret it as something dangerous or negative because all brains have that, all mammalian brains have that negativity bias.

and notice 15 puppies and a cobra, where would all your attention go? It would go to the most frightening thing in the room because that's an evolutionary survival adaptation. The problem is that when you see anything in your environment at all, you are likely to interpret it as something dangerous or negative because all brains have that, all mammalian brains have that negativity bias.

But in humans, it snags on the other capacity. And that is the ability to tell ourselves stories about what might happen, what could happen, what may have happened elsewhere that are so frightening to us that we actually, at a fairly regular rate, certain humans take their own lives rather than face what the story in their heads is telling them about a possible future.

But in humans, it snags on the other capacity. And that is the ability to tell ourselves stories about what might happen, what could happen, what may have happened elsewhere that are so frightening to us that we actually, at a fairly regular rate, certain humans take their own lives rather than face what the story in their heads is telling them about a possible future.

But in humans, it snags on the other capacity. And that is the ability to tell ourselves stories about what might happen, what could happen, what may have happened elsewhere that are so frightening to us that we actually, at a fairly regular rate, certain humans take their own lives rather than face what the story in their heads is telling them about a possible future.