As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I’ve been doing research for decades, and I’ve loved learning and discovering new things about the way our minds work. But I’d have to say that the single most interesting and important connection I’ve made is the link between anxiety and habits—why we learn to get anxious, and how even that becomes a habit.
Anxiety hides in our habits. It hides in our bodies, as we learn to disconnect from our feelings through myriad different behaviors. While psychologists and treatment specialists have identified several strategies for breaking harmful habits like anxiety, overeating, and procrastination, a therapy’s effectiveness often depends on one’s individual genetic makeup. Fortunately, modern science may have revealed how certain ancient practices can bring the old and new brain together to defeat these harmful habits, no matter whether you’ve won or lost the genetic lottery.
Anxiety hides in our habits. It hides in our bodies, as we learn to disconnect from our feelings through myriad different behaviors.
Wait—we only have one brain, right? you may be asking. You’re not wrong, yet in a difference sense, our brain is more complex. What’s sometimes called our “old brain”—that is, the collection of brain structures that evolved early on in human existence—is set up to help us survive. In addition to reward-based learning (the process that sets up daily habits and even addictions), it has another trick up its sleeve: It takes what it learns and moves the learning into “muscle” memory as soon as it can. In other words, our brains are set up to form habits so we can free up the brain space to learn new things.
Imagine getting up every morning and having to relearn how to stand, put on your clothes, walk, eat, talk—you’d be exhausted by noon. In “habit mode,” we act quickly, without thinking, as though our old brain is telling our new brain: “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. You don’t have to spend energy here and can think about other things.” This division of labor is partly how the newer parts of our brain that evolved comparatively later, such as the prefrontal cortex, were able to evolve the ability to think and plan ahead.
This is also why old habits are hard to change. No one wants to spend a beautiful weekend indoors cleaning a cluttered closet when there’s still space to shove in more junk. It’s only when the closet is stuffed to the gills that you are forced to clean it. Well, it’s the same with your brain, which won’t bother with the old stuff until it reaches a critical level. The newer parts of your brain would much rather spend time on “more important” matters such as planning your next vacation, answering emails, learning the latest tricks for staying calm in a frantic world, and researching what the current nutritional trends are.
Besides serving as the location for thinking and planning ahead, the prefrontal cortex is also the part of the brain that you count on for controlling your urges. If you see a doughnut, your old brain impulsively tries to pounce on it, thinking, Calories! Survival! The prefrontal cortex also helps you keep your New Year’s resolutions (and ironically, it’s that same inner voice that judges you when you fail).
Now, an anxiety habit doesn’t just magically disappear simply by the realization that it is born and bred through repetition. The first step is to recognize our “habit loops”—patterns that consist of a trigger, a behavior, and a result. Then we can use strategies in order to change entrenched bad habits—even an anxiety habit.
4 Ways to Unhook from a Habit Loop
1. Willpower
When you tap into your willpower reserve, your new brain is supposed to tell your older brain to take a hike and simply order the salad instead of the hamburger, right? If you’re anxious, you should be able to tell yourself to relax, and then be more relaxed. Willpower seems like it should work, but there are two big caveats.
First, recent research is calling into question some of the early ideas on willpower. Some of these studies have shown that willpower is genetically endowed for a lucky subset; still other studies have argued that willpower is itself a myth. Even studies that acknowledge willpower as real tended to find that people who exerted more self-control were not actually more successful in accomplishing their goals—in fact, the more effort they put in, the more depleted they felt. Buckling down, gritting your teeth, or forcing yourself to “just do it” might help in the short term (or at least make you feel like you are doing something), but are unlikely to work in the long term.
Second, while willpower may be fine under normal conditions, when you get stressed (saber-toothed tiger, email from the boss, fight with a spouse, exhaustion, hunger), your old brain takes control and overrides your new brain, basically shutting the latter down until the stress is gone. So exactly when you need your willpower—which resides, remember, in the prefrontal cortex/new brain—it’s not there, and your old brain eats cupcakes until you feel better and your new brain comes back online. Think of the prefrontal cortex this way: As the youngest and least evolutionarily develo