The brain’s fire alarm: understanding the false triggers of anxiety

Anxiety is a natural mechanism, but sometimes the brain activates it as a “false alarm.” In this article, Dr Emily DuPre, clinical psychologist and member of the Oli help team, takes us inside the brain to explain what happens when the amygdala sounds the alarm even without real danger, and why the physical sensations of anxiety feel so intense and real—especially in neurodivergent children.

Anxiety is sort of a misunderstood emotion

Misunderstood yet actually very common. In fact, so common that an American task force has recently recommended that all children ages 8-18 be screened for anxiety disorders.  Anxiety disorders are increasingly prevalent among children, and even more likely to be diagnosed among neurodiverse children. 

Professionals have various theories on the reasons for this, but the fact remains that this category of mental health difficulties is one of the most frequently identified. In this blog we want you to take away a few important points:

• Anxiety is a natural survival response that triggers the fight-or-flight reaction when danger is perceived.

  
  

• The brain has an alarm system—the amygdala—that works like a smoke detector, alerting us to internal and external threats.

  
  

• In some people, this system is over-sensitive and activates even without real danger, leading to exaggerated or irrational fears.

  
  

• When this happens, the brain treats anxiety as life-threatening and releases chemicals that cause strong physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating and muscle tension.

  
  

• These sensations are real and can fuel a vicious cycle, making people feel overwhelmed or out of control, especially if they don’t understand what is happening.

Anxiety is critical to our safety and survival but it may be triggered by a ‘false alarm’ reaction in the brain

We all experience anxiety at times, and actually we would not want to nor could we completely eradicate anxiety in someone. So, when someone says, ‘I have anxiety’ what they really mean to say is, ‘I have anxiety that gets in my way’ or ‘My anxiety feels too strong, too often.’ It’s safe to say that without anxiety, our species wouldn’t exist anymore.

Millennia ago, when we humans were hunter-gatherers, the women would hang out in the caves, and the men would wander out in their loin clothes with their spears and go hunt for food. Let’s say that Man A and Man B were out on the daily hunt, and some dangerous sabre-toothed tiger snuck up behind them. Man A smells and hears the tiger but has no anxiety response and continues about his business as usual, yet Man B smells and hears the tiger, has an immediate anxiety response, which allows him to run away at an exceptional speed or to turn and fight the tiger with unusual force. 

Which man is more likely to survive and therefore pass on his genes to the next generation? Well, Man B, of course. So, in this way, anxiety has been crucial to the survival of our species and in some ways, it still is.  

Just like you have a smoke detector in your house to let you know when there is an actual, dangerous fire and therefore you need to react and get to safety, we have a part of our brain called the amygdala that alerts us to danger inside or outside of the body. The problem is that in some people there is a sort of ‘false alarm’ reaction to real or perceived dangers in life. 

I’m sure you’ve been in a building having a chat or a meeting, and for no apparent reason, the fire alarm goes off, clanging loudly and confusing and annoying everyone in the building. There is no actual danger, no smoke, no fire, but the alarm is acting in the exact same way as if there were an actual fire.  

This happens to some people’s brains as well. For example, some people (for various reasons) are incredibly scared of things like pigeons or vomit.  While these things aren’t necessarily pleasant, they’re not actually dangerous. Yet the person’s brain responds in a way that causes them to behave and think in ways that tell them that they are life threatening. So, in this way, the brain is acting like the smoke detector blaring on without any actual danger.

When the brain experiences a ‘false alarm’ reaction to anxiety, it triggers a physiological response that can feel very real and scary

The brain can also react in a ‘burnt toast’ sort of way. In these cases, there may be a tiny bit of danger, but the brain reacts as if it’s an all-out three alarm fire. Have you ever been cooking and maybe the food gets a tad overcooked or too close to the cooking element, so a little smoke is released but it’s nothing serious, no actual flames are produced, and it’s all sorted out quickly and safely? And yet the smoke detector goes off anyway, and you’ve got to use the kitchen towel to fan the air to silence the alarm!

In this circumstance, there was a small amount of smoke or “danger,” but the alarm went off just the same as if there were raging flames all over the kitchen. This can happen to people’s brains when there is indeed some sort of anxiety provoking situation, like say a job interview or an exam, yet the person’s internal alarm bells react way too intensely to the reality of the situation, and therefore they can’t function properly or even go through with the task at hand.  

In this way, the brain perceives all anxiety (real or imagined) as literally life threatening, whether it fits the facts or not. And as a result, the amygdala releases chemicals, including cortisol and adrenaline, which change our bodies’ functioning in a millisecond. The brain is responding to this perceived threat in order to keep us alive because it thinks we are in danger of dying.  Immediately our heart and lungs change functioning.

The heart starts to pump blood faster and harder to the arms and legs and away from smaller, non-essential parts of the body. Because the heart is pumping faster, the breath changes, becoming short, sharp, and shallow. Your body is preparing to fight or flee or freeze in the face of your enemy, but in reality, you’re just sitting in a chair waiting for your job interview to start! This results in the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body becoming imbalanced, which can make you feel dizzy or light-headed or tingly and can make you sweat, or feel hot, or cold, or clammy.

Because the blood has instantly shifted away from non-essential functioning like digesting your lunch, you may experience bowel or bladder urgency. Some people also experience vision changes such as decreased peripheral vision (no need to notice those beautiful flowers in the distance when you’re running for your life!).  And many people also experience muscle tension, especially in body parts such as hands, neck and glutes.

Being aware of what’s going on in your body is the first step to breaking this vicious cycle - the next blogpost will tell you what to do next

You can see how the process of anxiety is extremely physical and can feel to some like they’re going ‘crazy’ or even dying, especially if they’re not aware of what’s happening to them. Indeed, all of these physiological changes in the body send panic signals to the brain, which in turn causes the brain to release even more anxiety chemicals!

In this way, the body gets into a feedback loop of ratcheting up the stakes and triggering all sorts of thoughts related to the perceived threat, such as ‘This interview is going to go so poorly’ or ‘They’re going to hate me’ which in turn causes the heart to race even more, and… you get the picture. So, you can see that anxiety is useful and even life-saving in the correct contexts, but when we have ‘false alarm’ responses, it can feel – and indeed it is! – very real. 

Next month, we will take it a step further and give you a super simple yet incredibly effective tool for short circuiting this vicious cycle and instead creating a more virtuous cycle in its place.

Stay tuned!