Is it all in my head? The thing you need to know NOW about anxiety

We often think of anxiety as an emotion that exists only in our minds. In fact, this is how we tend to think about many of our emotional responses—that they’re all happening in our heads. This is why we often try to solve anxiety by focusing on our thoughts.

However, anxiety is actually something that’s happening in our bodies. If this is new to you and you’re struggling with anxiety at home or in school, the answers you’ve been looking for may be simpler and faster than you first thought.

Anxiety arises from a complex interaction between the mind and body, primarily through the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body, acts as a superhighway, transmitting messages between the brain and body. Interestingly, 80% of the nerve fibers carry signals from the body to the brain, while only 20% transport information from the brain to the body.

So, what does this mean for anxiety? Well, if most of the information the brain receives is coming from the body, it suggests that anxiety is largely (80%) a bodily experience. When the body is stressed, it sends signals to the brain, creating a heightened state of anxiety. The brain then interprets these signals by attaching thoughts to the feelings—not the other way around.

To address the growing trend in anxiety, we must first look at what’s happening in the body.

The Emotions Lab