EP99: The Evolutionary Reason Your Brain Creates Anxiety
Jun 8, 2020
auto_awesome
Explore the evolutionary reason behind anxiety and how our brains tend to create anxiety even when there is no actual threat. Understand the logic behind our brain's actions and overcome misconceptions. Learn how our brain's natural processes can help reduce worry and fixations in our modern world.
Anxiety is a subjective experience that our minds label as anxiety, not something actively created by the brain.
Our brain's evolution for life 200,000 years ago in an immediate return environment can cause unfounded anxieties in today's delayed return world.
Deep dives
Brains and Anxiety
Anxiety is not something that the brain actively creates, but rather a subjective experience that our minds label as anxiety. Brains are constantly active and generate energy, but anxiety is a man-made construct. The brain's activity does not have a negative intention, and it is us who perceive and interpret certain experiences as anxiety. Understanding that brains do not create anxiety helps us detach ourselves from labeling and overthinking our experiences.
Evolution and Our Experience
The human brain we have today evolved for life around 200,000 years ago, which was very different from the modern world. Our ancestors lived in an immediate return environment, where survival depended on being present, reacting instantly to threats, and focusing on immediate actions. However, human evolution has been slow, while the world has radically changed. Today, we live in a delayed return environment, where many actions and decisions have delayed payoffs. As our brain still operates as if we were in an immediate return environment, it can trigger fears and worries based on imagined future dangers or uncertainties. Understanding this mismatch between our brain's evolution and the current world helps us see that our anxieties are often unfounded and not based on immediate threats.
The Mismatch and False Associations
Our brain's comparisons and judgments, which were necessary for survival in the past, can lead to anxiety in today's world. We unconsciously compare ourselves to a larger number of people, thanks to technology and media, even though our brain evolved to assess a smaller social group. Our minds try to explain our anxious feelings by creating theories and associations, assuming there is a real problem. However, in a delayed return environment, where immediate threats are rare, our brain can falsely attach anxiety to imagined future scenarios and uncertainties. Recognizing that these associations are often inaccurate and that there is no actual problem in the present can help us alleviate unnecessary anxiety and worry.
The human brain hasn’t changed much in the past 200,000 years. But–you may have noticed–the world has changed a lot since then.What this means is that there are many things your brain does that were necessary and adaptive in the world of 200,000 years ago, but that are unnecessary and irrelevant today. Fear, for example,