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In Book Takes, authors share three things that readers will gain from their books as well as an insight into what they learnt during the researching and writing. This week, Lance Burdett, who spent 22 years with the NZ Police as a crisis negotiator, talks about his latest book Anxiety is a Worry: Understanding and Managing Anxiety.
Having no formal tertiary education, it wasn’t until he was 35 that Lance Burdett learnt to learn. Following a period with depression, and other challenges while in the police, he set about using newfound skills to find out the cause of his illness: why was he different to others; why wasn’t he “normal”?
This thirst for knowledge grew and he began studying the brain, which led to his first book, Behind The Tape: Life on the Police Frontline, detailing his journey into and out of depression. Three years later, after discovering neuroscience, he wrote his next book – Dark Side of the Brain: Adapting to Adversity – an insight into the darkest parts of our brain.
Anxiety is a Worry is a guide for understanding the condition, possible treatment options and practical ways to manage it. Here, he shares three things he hopes readers will take away from the book.
The Origins of Anxiety
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the definition of anxiety is worried thoughts. It is also a worry because it is exponentially increasing in our ever-changing world. There is no single cause for anxiety, it is multifaceted. At its simplest, our brain is wired for earlier times - to look for fear and avoid it. In our modern world, we must learn to manage the challenges that fuel our fears: to embrace them, to feel them and to methodically work our way through them.
Technology is the biggest contributor to anxiety. Technology is advancing swiftly, and we’re struggling to keep pace. Additionally, some technology brings ease of information, meaning we’re only a few keystrokes away from finding out as much as we need to learn with little effort on our part. Given we have a thirst for knowledge - we are a species who are born curious - we are no longer satisfied with a single answer. Thus we now have more information in our brains than in the past and at a faster rate than our brains can process. This results in us being hypervigilant to risk. We simply worry more.
Managing Anxiety
Just as there is no single cause for anxiety, there is no single antidote. Each of us is different due to our experiences and environment, therefore we must do what is right according to who we are. Anxiety is a Worry provides readers with many ways to manage anxiety. There is no single cure to overcome it, nor should there ever be a cure.
It is in those times of stress that we develop and learn the tools needed to continue the adaptive process of living in a modern world. In most things, a holistic approach provides the greatest opportunity for success, and it is through experimenting with various techniques that we learn. Moreover, it is up to the reader to use the techniques described in this book in a way that suits them.
Although Anxiety is a Worry is aimed at parents, educators, caregivers and those supporting people with anxiety, it is for everyone who finds themselves worrying more than previously. None of us are immune to over-worrying. In the world of wellbeing, doing nothing is not an option because doing nothing will only increase detrimental effects.
If we allow anxiety to continue to interrupt our lives it can result in worse disruption, including depression. The brain is an active organ just like our heart. We can work on worrying or we can work on what is worrying us, the brain could not care less, it will work regardless. Working on what is worrying us is proactive and, over time, becomes a natural response when faced with challenging situations.
Dopamine, Could It Be The Cure?
Dopamine rewires our brain, literally. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that acts as a chemical messenger communicating messages between nerve cells in our brain and in our body. It also acts as a hormone.
Dopamine not only rewards us each time we achieve something, it is also a motivator and the only neurotransmitter that we learn from. If we can regulate our dopamine levels, we may be able to rewire our preferred ingrained response of fight, flight or freeze.
Children of today have a very different brain to children of two generations past. Not only are their curious minds being satisfied using technology, each time they use technology they’re being rewarded with dopamine. Dopamine to the brain is likened to adding water to clay; it makes it malleable. Breaking tasks into smaller chunks and acknowledging each of those chunks as we work through our challenges will help us achieve more much faster.
What I Learnt About Myself
The more research I did, the more I began to question my own thoughts and how my brain processes information. Through the 200+ research papers, numerous academic publications, and the widest range of methods for managing anxiety, the more I learnt about myself.
I wondered why as a child I never quite had the feeling of fitting in with others, of having close friends, of being part of society. Isolation became my place of sanctuary, forced at first then becoming a comfort. What neuroscience discovered is that when we isolate ourselves, a unique neuropeptide, called tachykinin, is produced in the brain. Recent studies suggest that tachykinin is overproduced during long-term isolation, which leads to increased aggression and fear. Longer term, it can cause paranoia. Most of my life, I have struggled with anger and aggressive behaviour.
As I researched the many causes of anxiety, I began to recognise traits of ADHD in myself. I went to a reputable university website and undertook an online questionnaire that confirmed what I had long suspected - I have ADHD. It was not so much a revelation as it was a relief, I finally knew my “why”. In our thirst for curiosity, we are always seeking the answer to the word “why”. I had found mine.
In doing so, I have now found my tribe, where I belong, my place in the world. A sense of control, a sense of belonging, a sense of calm. Whenever I become stressed, anxious or have fits of intense anger, I am now able to slowly work through the negative aspects on each occasion. Learning how we learn and learning about where we come from can be helpful.
Anxiety is a Worry: Understanding and Managing Anxiety, by Lance Burdett (Bateman Books, $39.99), is available now.
