ASM075 Anxiety, Demon Possession, and Righteous Anger

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anxiety demon possession and righteous anger all that and more on this week's episode of ask science mike

[Music]

welcome to ask science mike the weekly podcast where i answer your questions about science faith and life and i'm so excited this week to tell you that the first dates for my upcoming book tour this fall has been announced you can see them at findinggodinthewaves.com tour and i'll tell you more about that after the start but for now we've got a show to do let's get it started so september 13th is a really big deal in science mike land because my first ever book called finding god in the waves will come out it'll be in bookstores everywhere it'll be on amazon it's actually available for pre-order right now if you listen to the show with any regularity you've already heard that a few times but today i have something really exciting to announce on that front i'm doing a tour to support the book and i wanted to tell you just a little bit about it some different events that we're having and how you can learn more so first of all on september 13th that night tuesday i'm having a launch party in tallahassee my hometown at good samaritan united methodist church my home church it's going to be a free event completely free no cost to attend but you will need to register an rsvp to reserve a spot because we're expecting a pretty good crowd now this event is going to feature a few things they'll be the first ever public reading from the book there'll be a q a some of my friends are going to be there to play a little music i'm excited about that and immediately following that there'll be a meet and greet and book signing my first book signing i've ever done so it's pretty historic for me and uh you know if you're in the tallahassee area or in a drivable distance i'd love to see you that night and i don't remember the rest of the announcement oh yeah that's right and also i know a lot of people can't get to tallahassee and even though we're going to try to go to a lot of cities on this tour there are parts of the country i'm not going to get close to so that you can be a part of this launch and you can hear questions and you can see this launch we're going to stream it live on facebook on my facebook page so if you'd like to learn more about this event go to findinggodontheways.com tour now that's the first stop on the tour which will then immediately move on to other cities the next one of course is denver so there's several types of events we're doing on this tour the first is ask science mike live now if you've heard this program it's a question and answer show which is a lot of fun but to me the most fun episodes of ask science mike are the live ones where we do record the show in front of a live studio audience where the questions come in real time and my answers are unrehearsed uh i think those are the best episodes of the program so we're just gonna do a bunch of them all over the united states okay so most of those will be ticketed events because we're trying to cover the cost of you know me traveling from city to city and staying in hotel rooms and uh you know working with venues and all that kind of stuff so a 15 ticket to most ask science mike live events really affordable they're a lot of fun i mean people have told me it's it's not only an you know enlightening experience it's also can be hilarious because of the interaction between me and you so i'd love to see you at an ask science mic live event the second kind of event we're going to have on tour is the liturgists gathering now you've heard some about that already on this show but michael and lisa gunger and i are getting together to put on a day and a half event full of conversation uh insightful teaching and uh really when i say teaching sharing our opinions and then hearing yours and then some really amazing music put on by michael and lisa we've done these in the form of belong before we've gotten really good feedback and so for denver and chicago the liturgist gathering will serve as the tour stops although in chicago you could also see me at the y christian conference if you're going to go to that and i'd love to see you at both if you've got tickets to both great we'll just spend a lot of time together in chicago now the final type of stop on the tour is some churches and other venues have brought me in just to give a a talk on my story 30 minute 45 minute talk about the story the book is based on now you've heard it on episodes six and seven of the liturgist podcast uh and and that's a live portrayal of dramatic portrayal that's very similar to that now what all these events have in common is that there will be a meet and greet and book signing for anyone who attends so if you come to any of those events i'm going to stay around as long as i need to to meet you talk to you sign your book you know take a picture whatever you want to do i really enjoy meeting you face to face i budget a lot of time i budget more time to meet people after the event than i do for the actual event itself because to me that's where the life is talking to you hearing your stories i love it so we've got some cities announced right now and more cities are coming soon like every week for the next few weeks we're going to announce another raft of cities that are on the tour just because we're finalizing dates and locations with our venues that have agreed to partner on this tour again you can learn all about it at findinggodintheways.com tour now finally in addition to doing a city to city tour i'm also doing a blog and podcast tour so if you're a blogger or you're a podcaster and you'd like to do an interview with me or talk to me about the the subject matter of finding god in the waves which is how we make peace between god and science how we can use them both together instead of in opposition i'm available to do that and if you're selected to be part of that tour we're going to send you an advanced copy of the book and you're going to get promotion on my social media channels uh which frankly there's a decent number of people that follow me on twitter and facebook these days so you know i'd love to promote your work there to learn more about that just go to ask sciencemike.com and then look for the link to the blog and podcast tour uh on the show notes in this episode episode 75 and listen i would love to see you on tour and if you're a blogger or a podcaster i'd love to talk to you one on one about how science and faith work together this is a really exciting season for me so you'll probably hear a lot about this in the coming weeks but thanks for going on this journey with me and hopefully i'll see you in person as we do it [Music] hey mike so i have a question about righteous anger now you've talked a lot about anger and the negative effects that an overly active amygdala could have on the brain but what happens when that anger is aimed at a justifiable cause so i've heard a lot of christians use the story of jesus driving out the money changers from the temple as a justification for their anger toward some perceived injustice in the world or in the church and oftentimes that anger releases itself as bitterness or hate or some type of you know violent action i i've seen it manifest itself in you know the black lives matter protests right now i've also seen it manifest itself in the email inboxes of people like me and you who have such bad theology i'd love to hear you talk some about how that righteous anger affects our brain and how we might be able to channel it in a way that can be productive and beneficial for us as a church in a society as a whole uh thank you i love the work you do i'm really looking forward to hearing your answer to this and um thanks for all you do it's a really good question and it's one that convicts me to use my old baptist language um because i have a complicated relationship with anger uh i'm very uncomfortable around expressions of anger based on my own personal growth and development as a person and relationships i've had with folks that have kind of fiery tempers and how i relate to that in fact an aversion to displays of anger kind of defines who i am as a person and recent years have challenged my assumptions about the appropriateness and health of expressing anger so let's talk a little bit about uh the clinical side and then we'll talk a little bit about uh distinguishing righteous anger uh from you know just run-of-the-mill anger and then some things we can do about anger and see where that goes so first of all chronic anger being angry often has some serious health consequences it's been linked to depression it's been linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack and specifically people who are angry often have a 19 higher risk of developing heart disease because anger is hard on the heart especially the kind of short term extreme outbursts of rage you can see like road rage or when people get so mad they scream or punch a wall or something like that the kind of anger you see boil up from people who repress it most of the time those kind of outbursts can actually double your risk of heart attack or stroke in the two hours following that outburst that's how much stress you're putting on your heart in such an outburst you see when you get angry your body engages its flight or fight response your arteries constrict you get a surge of adrenaline and you get ready for a physical altercation it's very hard on your body's support systems to go into that kind of state and anger like severe rage puts you in a very very elevated flight or fight state now one thing that's different about righteous anger or anger we feel that is completely justified even after our angry episode is that it has this sort of satisfying quality that can actually create a compulsion very similar to addiction toward righteous indignation i think this is an affliction that's common on twitter people get riled up for ju completely justifiable reasons and justifiable causes and when they do so they're they're getting a little tickle in their ventral stratum the part of the brain associated with pleasure in addition to the amygdala response which is going to what it's going to reinforce human behavior it's going to create this dopamine serotonin cycle that humans find so satisfying and so tempting so you can get a relationship to righteous anger that's pretty similar to a relationship to pound cake or coke whatever whatever whatever your little pleasurable thing is so whether it's righteous anger or you know just traditional anger if you're having it often and you're elevating that flight or fight response you're gonna have the same health consequences so eve you know if jesus was turning over or driving the money changers out of the temple a few times a day it would have affected his physical well-being in a negative way so this is an important distinction even if the source of our anger is justified allowing ourselves to be angry daily or most of the time is bad for our bodies okay so we'll talk a little bit more about that because there's some important points i don't want to miss in there so the folks over at webmd offer four criteria for diagnosing and discharging anger and here they are one i can't accomplish anything by blaming other people even if they are responsible for the problem i'll try another angle so the idea there is looking and saying if i'm blaming situations circumstances whatever on someone else it doesn't change anything even if they're actually responsible so let me try another angle for my own internal monologue and my communications with people okay that's one idea second idea will this matter five years from now how about five hours or five minutes the third is if i'm still angry about this tomorrow i'll deal with it then but for now i'm just going to cool off right so it's giving yourself permission to relax in this moment see how you feel 24 hours later and the fourth thing they recommend is saying acting angry is not the same as showing that i care there's other ways to show that you care about people or issues than displays of anger now here's the problem and this is a huge problem sometimes our anger is not diffused by those tests so i can think of several scenarios you're in a relationship and the other person has betrayed you and continues to betray you so you may not blame them and they're responsible for the issue but as long as you're in a relationship with someone's betraying you or abusing you it's difficult to find another angle in the same thing people who are part of marginalized or oppressed groups in society what can they do to find another angler they can search for personal peace but every time you face societal systemic pressures it against your basic life and well-being you're going to be challenged in the same way will this matter five years from now well if your partner is betraying you yeah it will or if you're a person of color living in america well the things in society that anger you matter in five years if they don't change absolutely the same thing being angry about this tomorrow of course you'll be angry about this tomorrow the last part acting angry is not the same as showing that i care is a good point but here's the thing anger actually gets a bad rap in american society and evangelical culture specifically because anger can and this is validated by studies anger can actually get people's attention and change others behaviors when calm conversations fail to do the same so other brains register the significance of what you're saying sometimes only when you say it while angry because you send out signals that you're in a heightened emotional state and the other person's brain realizes you could becoming a threat or if they value you that there's something they really need to listen to here's the problem though it's a gamble because when we go into an angry state it's a natural response for another person's brain to enter a flight or fight response themselves and once you're in that state learning's not possible anymore people are either going to attack or flee in order to survive that's that's what we've been reduced to in that state our best our basal gangly are kind of running the show right the the reptile brain takes over all the fancy human neurons even the fancy mammal neurons they're kind of shoved out of the way and the reptile the lizard brain takes over our behaviors so there's a gamble there there's a gamble there but but absolutely sometimes anger is the only way to get attention by the way we have a tendency when talking about racial justice issues to minimize and erase the amount of anger martin luther king expressed over racial injustice he absolutely painted pictures of peace he gave inspiring speeches he encouraged non-violence but history is clear that he also got angry and spoke from a place of anger often and that attention galvanized the world and drove significant changes in the way black americans were treated in society but it also made some people angry and in other ways you know other people may have come along to the cause slower than they would have otherwise we don't have any clear understanding of what those statistics may look like but i think we can all agree that the net contribution of martin luther king to racial justice in america was positive if we can't agree i'm not sure this is the podcast for you anyway so now here's another thing about anger relationships that incorporate non-violent expressions of anger generally see a benefit in intimacy and duration can you believe that people in friendships and romantic relationships who are able to express anger without becoming violent or making their partner or friend feel unsafe actually see an increase in intimacy and an increase in duration people feel like they know you better after they've seen you angry isn't that fascinating totally surprising to me as someone who's very uncomfortable with anger now what do we do when we have justifiable anger we don't repress it repressing anger leads to outbursts of rage right so you want to acknowledge your anger if necessary you want to direct it to people who are the source of your anger in ways that are not violent or threatening but there's another thing that i've kind of seen in the justice movement specifically among black lives matter advocates and this is an idea of self-care so people who spend a lot of time advocating for racial justice they find themselves in high stress encounters in protests in seminars and other scenarios and that has this physical toll we've talked about earlier in the answer well they somewhat mitigate that with cycles of self-care they have regular routines and disciplines of entering into calm states of feeling safe and cared for and they go on seasons or periods of time where they don't engage in the work which is probably a healthy response so what have we learned chronic anger righteous or otherwise carries real health benefits but repressing anger is not an appropriate response because all we're doing is encouraging ourselves to go into a state of rage later on which is extremely bad for our physical well-being better is to express anger when necessary in a non-violent non-threatening way within our relationships understanding that sometimes anger is the only way to get people to understand the importance of what we're talking about and finally it's important to have a good self-care regimen so that we're dealing with the ongoing physiological costs of our anger be it righteous or otherwise [Music] our next question came in via email and it reads hey science mike what's your take on demon possession to give you insight i go to a christian liberal arts college with roots in calvinism boy that's quite a combo the pastor at the college gave an exorcism a few years ago before i started attending said school and it is one of the stories that is associated with the place i don't know the pastor well enough to ask him of his experiences so i might have to keep asking around about what exactly happened i grew up pentecostal so the idea isn't so far-fetched in my upbringing thanks for doing what it is you do jack well jack that's certainly an interesting question it's one i feel like i've answered before in the show but i looked for it and couldn't find it so if this is a repeat answer for those of you who listen to the show a lot i apologize and for this is these aren't the best questions to ask science mike um because i start with a scientific take and well let's start with a little bit of social science belief in angels and demons is incredibly common in america 77 of adults believe in ethereal beings according to a 2006 poll uh and other polls earlier and later corroborate those numbers belief in angels can go as high as you know 80 or 82 percent some years and if you poll specifically religious people or christians those numbers go up pretty considerably up into the 90s as high as 96 percent of people and in some countries across the world more people believe in angels than believe in god so of course if you believe in angels it's not a stretch to believe in demons and in terms of religious history the association of possession by an ethereal being as being universally negative is somewhat unique to christianity uh some other faiths and spiritual traditions believe or have a belief in short-term possession by beings but they can be positive or negative so that's a little historical context for demon possession of course within the christian tradition of course you know there's the belief that jesus comes to dwell within us or through god's holy spirit uh for trinitarian folk but we don't really consider that a possession do we uh now when we look at the scientific evidence for demon possession wow there's a different story scientific evidence for demon possession is incredibly scarce in fact i was unable to find a single credible bit of forensic evidence or scientific evidence that would support something as extraordinary acclaim as demon possession now there are certainly a lot of testimonies and stories out there about demon possession but there's a reason we don't use human testimony to validate fact claims alone in science human testimony is a somewhat unreliable source of information even when people are trying to be completely honest okay what i am not saying scientifically speaking that pastors and priests who speak of exorcism or demon possession are lying i'm saying that scientifically speaking they are likely mistaken now don't turn off the podcast here is more to this answer now the sources i did find that claim to have forensic evidence aren't very credible they tend to be conspiracy sites they tend to be exclusively religious sites and the evidence they cite is either human testimony or you know very blurry photographs or very scratchy audio recordings and most of the behaviors you see from the demon possessed are simply too easily explained to the corroboration between the possessed and the person reporting the incident or if the observer isn't involved the person who is possessed as well as the person who reported the possession one feature is truly spectacular that is often ascribed to demon possession is levitation but i was not able to find a scientifically diagnosed or tested case of demon possession levitation and i did a lot of digging through academic journals to try to find one so i'm comfortable saying that you cannot make a credible scientific claim that demon possession is real so what would modern science say about demon possession it would describe them as manifestations of illness or mental illness problems with the body systems our brains things with a measurable origin and some treatment methodology available from modern medicine that's the best scientific answer on demon possession i can give you now what do we do with that as christians and people of faith well first of all i think a lot of the accounts in the bible specifically really are attempts to explain observed phenomena in a time before germ theory in a time before psychology in a time before neuroscience schizophrenia dissociative personality disorder multiple personality disorder bipolar disorder many of these things even to the person experiencing them seem to come from beyond their own consciousness and why wouldn't you describe that as an ethereal being or a demon now today many people still believe in demon possession a significant portion of the population um and certainly believe in spiritual warfare of some kind you know for a long time in my life i didn't really hold supernatural beliefs as an atheist i didn't believe in the supernatural and when i came back to christianity as a non-theist mystic i didn't suddenly have some appreciation for the supernatural i thought supernatural language was a way of simply describing physical reality that there was no distinction between natural and supernatural and what's interesting about this question when you've asked it is you're asking something i'm working through right now and frankly that i don't expect to resolve in my lifetime when we speak of spirit what exactly are we speaking of when we talk about angels and demons what are we talking about today the science on these matters is clear and unambiguous barring some further evidence which science always leaves room for there's no scientific claim for demons but some of the experiences i've had in my life some of the mystical moments lead me to believe that in a mystical way we talk of something real when we talk of the spiritual realm now what in the world do i mean by that i don't know and i can't articulate it i would expect no one to take my word on it i would not make that as a fact claim i would not debate or defend it i just have moments in my life that i have difficulty explaining that were powerful and pervasive uh on the show notes this week on asksciencemike.com i'm going to share one such story that i almost completely dismiss out of hand it's an article in the washington post from a psychiatrist who is qualified and diagnoses mental illnesses and sometimes does that for priests and the catholic church and he um screens out people with mental illness so they don't attempt to exercise a mental illness which by the way we have documented cases of people undergoing physical harm or even death when someone tried to treat a mental illness with exorcism that is a serious measurable issue but this man writes compellingly of his experiences with those patients who he believes were not mentally ill but instead possessed i want to be extraordinarily clear the most likely scientific explanation is that this expert is mistaken and that he was either a victim of fraud or a misinterpretation of mental illness but for those of you who are curious or want to explore or deeply believe in an unseen realm of spirits where angels and demons are involved in our material reality this is as close to a credible case from an expert describing demon possession as i was able to find so wrap it up scientifically demon possession is not a thing [Laughter] for people of faith sometimes the matter is not quite so simple and the case is not quite as closed and what do i believe as you started what's my take i don't know i know what my scientific take is but what i think about the spirit world is a matter of mystery for me as much as anyone [Music] our next question explores mature topics if you're listening with your kids this is an excellent time to press pause and come back to the episode later hey science mike i was raised in an evangelical home with all the baggage uh related to sexuality that that comes with um i'm starting to realize uh that the way that i think about sexuality the way that i see other people the things that i think can go through my the things that go through my head when i'm observing other people in day-to-day life are all kind of tied back to that way of thinking and i was wondering if you had any advice on how to kind of rewrite my ways of thinking in terms of sexuality and if there's any good books or any good references that i could read that kind of helped me to find a healthier way of thinking thank you i too was raised in an evangelical upbringing and that was beautiful in a lot of ways and i think some of the teachings on marriage and relationships in evangelicalism are very beneficial they talk about fidelity they talk about dedication they talk about loyalty they talk about how deeply you should value your spouse and i think those are really constructive things that have helped me be a good husband but other things are less good i don't think teachings on complementarianism are positive especially in this day and age and i think the teachings about sex and sexuality in the church do more harm than good and i'm not just talking about lgbt issues here i'm talking about basic sexuality uh specifically there's a probably four teachings i'm most concerned with four bits of subtext that damage the way people process sexual experiences later in life the first one is that women's bodies are dangerous that women's bodies need to be covered up that they encourage sin this is a foundation for later objectification of women this is a foundation for sexual violence this is something that reduces women to sexual beings even though we have this you know forced chastity uh on women based on belief number two and that is that the sex drive is irresistible or uncontrollable once people reach a state of arousal and in men it's basically uncontrollable all the time hence the need for women to cover up this creates a lack of accountability between men and their own actions so i think that teaching is negative and harmful the third belief is that sex and sexuality are shameful or dirty or even taboo i think the taboos that we place around sexuality fuel sexual violence fuel dysfunction fuel pornography compulsions fuels secretive behaviors and may even create additional risks for pedophilia in our society because we're uncomfortable talking about sexual topics and if we do talk about them they're so taboo we talk about them in a context of arousal or fascination instead of simple acceptance and the fourth belief related to the third is that masturbation is shameful and sinful which creates an unhealthy relationship between a person and their own body it's even responsible i think for the reason many women are unable to achieve an orgasm because they have a shame state associated with their own sexuality these are topics that deeply concern me they undergird so much of human sexuality and what we understand through neuropsychology is that the language we use to describe ourselves affects our behaviors so if we believe women's bodies are deeply sexual by nature and that men's sex drives are uncontrollable this contributes to men saying well she deserved it look at what she was wearing do you see the relationship between those beliefs and the lived behavior or the shame the reason so many people men and women but especially men today view pornography in private without discussing with their partner leading to a sense of separation and a sense of betrayal even marital infidelity can be related to a breakdown in communication about sexuality related to shame if you can't tell this is a topic i feel passionately about so if you've been raised in that environment what on earth do you do i think you start with a shame detox you stop being ashamed of sexuality over time by changing your behavior first women's bodies are not dangerous they are not sinful now i'm a heterosexual male i think women's bodies are beautiful but women's breasts are primarily there as devices to feed children they're ways to provide sustenance to to babies women's bodies are shaped as they are to facilitate childbirth the reproduction of the species the wide hips are there for a utilitarian function that evolution has trained us to appreciate and culture has reinforced especially in america to a dramatic degree we realize that our sex drive is not shameful it's healthy we realize that for example people who have an orgasm often especially men have health benefits associated with that and regular masturbation actually leads to lower rates of prostate cancer in men so pleasure isn't sinful it isn't wrong it isn't shameful and we should foster seeking out pleasure in the context of relationships and uh infidelity and devotion to a person in my opinion is more healthy so in terms of how you change what you're doing i think a lot of problems for men especially this may be a problem for women as well is we can look at the sex we're attracted to and we can objectify them and immediately in a moment we can reduce that person down to a physical object and then judge it whether it's attractive or not if we find it's attractive then we go into a state of desire for that object not for that person so maybe you could try this a little technique this cognitive behavior therapy moment is at the moment you become aware that you're reducing a human being to an object intentionally associate that person with their personhood remind yourself with your inner monologue that you're looking at a person and not a sports car or a sandwich i don't know why i chose sports cars and sandwiches i'm not really into sports cars but i do love sandwiches [Laughter] anyway so this is a terrible dad joke um so you know to do that you know try imagining what that person's hopes and dreams may be or where they're going right now what they're traveling and you'll find pretty quickly that your brain moves back to viewing that person as a person and not an object of conquest it requires a lot of internal work and reflection to foster a healthier sexuality now in the context of your relationships learn to create open lines of communication around sex and sexuality with your partner i don't feel a lot of taboo discussing any topic with my wife in fact i feel so little taboo about sexuality that i'm pretty comfortable talking about it on a podcast like this knowing thousands of people will listen because i understand that sex is not only a necessary function in human reproduction but an essential component of bonding and relationships and personal peace and fulfillment that for people who are sexual sex is good now of course some people listening to this program are asexual and this is an experience you can't relate to uh that you uh you know you find confusing and off-putting so there's nothing wrong with being asexual either sex doesn't have to be a core part of your identity or your relationships but for people who choose to be in relationships and choose for sex to be a part of that relationship we understand that this physical expression is a huge part of how we relate to a person how we express intimacy and closeness and how we learn to help each other derive pleasure now i've got two books you asked for books i've got two i'd love for you to check out one is called sex at dawn it's a fantastic book one of my favorites about human sexuality and you know compares us with some primate species and another book that i have not read yet but is on my bookshelf that i'm getting ready to read is a book called good christian sex why chastity isn't the only option and other things the bible says about sex i haven't read it but it's come highly recommended by several people that i admire and respect so i'll have links to those in the show notes this week at asksciencemike.com our last question comes in via email and it reads hi science mike i'm not sure how to get started so i'll just dive right in i'm concerned that i may have generalized anxiety disorder i've always been a worrier and prone to stressing out more than my friends but it feels like i've been getting worse lately and interfering with my quality of life i've scheduled an appointment with my primary care physician though they can't see me for another month so i'm left to worry about everything that could be wrong with me in the meantime i've been trying to calm myself through research the power of knowledge but trying to figure out reliable sources of information on the disorder and the various options for treatment is overwhelming me a bit can you give me a summary on what anxiety disorders are specifically and what causes them to happen or get worse the internet says that they are more likely to occur in women why is that i've been also looking into my options regarding therapy but there are apparently a million types of therapists and i can't figure out which one would be best for me can you explain the difference between different types of therapists psychiatrists and which one would be best for someone with anxiety i know you're not a doctor but you're definitely better at reading and interpreting scientific research than i am and i was hoping you could point me in the right direction thank you for taking the time to read this kate well kate the first thing i'd like to tell you is you are not alone and i suspect a lot of people are interested in my answer to this question because it was by far uh it got the most votes this week on the patreon poll for questions on the show by a considerable margin actually uh anxiety is a big deal in our society today uh we have some reason to believe that anxiety is more common than it's been in the past and getting worse now i didn't see a lot of great research describing why specifically women may experience anxiety disorders more often than men and to honor the seriousness of the condition i'm not going to speculate on why that may be i'm just going to admit my ignorance now there's a distinction between anxiety and an anxiety disorder okay and anxiety disorders are a family of disorders and conditions where anxiety is so severe it interferes with daily living and a quality of life okay so do i just have anxiety or do i have an anxiety disorder are you having difficulty functioning getting through your day getting through your job getting through meals or are you doing those things but never able to experience positive emotions or rarely able to experience positive feelings associated with your daily life if so you may have an anxiety disorder now there are many types of anxiety disorders but the three most common in my understanding are the following first is generalized anxiety disorder and that's a constant worry and tension that keeps you from functioning even when there's no obvious cause for your anxiety another common type of anxiety disorder is social anxiety disorder and that's an extreme self-consciousness and worry in social settings so it can be paralyzing to be with other people when you have social anxiety disorder you can worry about how you appear how others will think about you what you might say what you might do and it can keep you from being able to not only enjoy those relationships and enjoy those times but even function in a conversation and another type of really common panic disorder uh or general anxiety disorder is a panic disorder this means sudden panic attacks now i've never been a person that experienced a great deal of anxiety without cause when i've had times in my life that i had a lot of anxiety i knew exactly why i had the anxiety and when i dealt with that situation or circumstance my anxiety went away and that's a normal relationship with anxiety not all anxiety is bad anxiety can be telling you something and if you're aware of what's causing your anxiety and you address the issue and your anxiety goes away there's nothing to worry about but after i had my motorcycle accident and corresponding brain injury i started to experience unexplainable anxiety for the first time i started to have anxiety and social settings because people's voices and the volume of background noise was overwhelming it made me feel afraid i actually started to have panic attacks i've had situations since the motorcycle accident where in some settings i have a sudden and extreme panic attack and even though i know it's related to my brain injury it's called comfort when you've been asked to speak to a bunch of students and you had to go hide in a closet for a few minutes to calm down so these are these are real things now don't worry all you listeners you guys are so kind you worry a lot when i admit that i've got health issues i'm actually a lot better i haven't had any of those things happen in several months but my point is i understand this question more than i may have in the past having experienced a temporary manifestation of some of these symptoms now the specific causes for any one person's anxiety disorder can be difficult to isolate but we understand some general contributing factors that are usually interrelated that can contribute to someone having an anxiety disorder one can be genetic factors you can have genetic predispositions to various types of anxiety two can be you experience some kind of trauma that can come from abuse that can come from a loss of a job or a loved one those can increase your propensity to have an anxiety disorder stress about work or money or school or relationships can contribute medications you're taking illness a temporary or chronic illness can contribute towards an anxiety disorder if you're very nervous often some studies link that with a highly increased risk of an anxiety disorder because it may change the way that your brain functions ingesting stimulants like coffee and chocolate can exacerbate anxiety disorders and substance abuse issues can certainly drive anxiety disorders now when you look at that list if you have more than one of those things in your life and each additional thing you pile up you increase your risk for an anxiety disorder so let's say you have an unknown genetic factor and someone you love very much dies and soon after that you get a pay cut at work because the company is on hard times and then you get a sinus infection that lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks you start drinking more coffee because you're having trouble sleeping at night and the occasional beer you used to have or the beer a week turns into three or four alcoholic drinks per day and suddenly you've climbed a ladder that gets you very very close to an anxiety disorder you've got so many contributing factors that your likelihood of having anxiety disorder has increased likewise if you're currently having what you believe is a generalized anxiety disorder are there things on that list that you can control and eliminate could you eat drink less coffee could you eat less chocolate or other stimulants could you cut down on your substance consumption even if it's a not an out of control habit can you examine your medications especially over the counter this might be a time to cut out herbal supplements which some of those have been contributed shown to contribute towards anxiety disorders and can you try to come to some emotional state of acceptance at least on a temporary term about situations you can't control can you face some grief can you understand that right now money is going to be tight and a budget cut may be necessary at least in the short term it's a it's a it's a posture that we're seeking to try to give the brain an opportunity to deal with the changes now in terms of treatment options for anxiety disorders once you see your doctor i hope your doctor is going to recommend a therapist he may prescribe something over the counter he may not he may want you to see a mental health specialist before you do but i certainly hope that it doesn't just end with medication because there are some really excellent scientifically validated therapeutic approaches to dealing with generalized anxiety disorders or anxiety disorders in general not just generalized anxiety disorders but these therapies vary depending on the type of anxiety disorder you have so i can't first i shouldn't i'm not a doctor but second even with all i've read i can't say like which therapy is right for you because i don't know specifically what condition you're dealing with and what the contributing factors may be but in general here are some treatment options for people suffering from an anxiety disorder one is something called relaxation therapy where a therapist talks you through and teaches you strategies for creating a state of relaxation in your life a related therapy is called biofeedback it's a methodology for learning to be aware of your body's physical state and intentionally manipulating them that's something i do a lot cognitive behavior therapy something you hear me talk about on the show all the time because i think it's such a powerful means for helping us deal with our own thoughts and feelings which is a way of becoming aware of your stream of consciousness and intentionally interrupting it and inserting different thoughts especially dealing with negative thoughts meditation has been shown to have a therapeutic effect on anxiety and you may want to try meditating in the month leading up to your doctor's appointment and there's other treatments that are disorder specific certainly like immersion therapy or there's several of those probably a dozen i saw online so now how do you find a good treatment provider well on the show notes this week on ask sciencemic.com there's a link that says questions to ask choosing a treatment provider it's fantastic i'd suggest that you go read that absorb it you'll see questions that you should ask but this is an essential thing it is normal it is normal for the first time you talk to a therapist or psychiatrist for it to be an interview not every patient and psychiatrist even if both have great intention are right for each other there's nothing wrong with seeing someone once or twice or three times and deciding they're not a fit and trying someone else and even if you try three or five or eight different therapists for your mental well-being especially if you have a pretty serious anxiety disorder it's okay to talk to multiple people and then work with the one who makes you feel most comfortable that they can help you get through this and they can help you restore a quality of life and get to a state where you are able to function again and psychiatrists and therapists understand this they understand that there just might not be a fit and that's okay don't feel any obligation because you saw some one one time and it just didn't work to just keep trying and keep trying i've heard a lot of people describe that pattern of behavior the important thing is what the important thing is that you get well the important thing is that you get the treatment that you need to function in life so remember you're not alone you are not alone a lot of people experience anxiety even crippling anxiety today there's nothing wrong with you you're not bad you're not wrong you've just got something you've got to deal with right now it may be purely in your brain it may be circumstantial but either way it's not hopeless and trained professionals can help you create strategies that help you deal with and mitigate this situation and in time it may completely go away but if it doesn't have hope you can get through this and it's okay to ask for help and it's okay to ask your loved ones to be patient and supportive as you do [Music] well that's another episode of ask science mike in the books thank you so much for listening i want to thank uh my patrons on patreon for making this show possible financially and for not only doing that but also doing the hard work of picking the questions for the show i am so thankful for all of you if you'd like to help contribute to science mike if you find the show helpful i really appreciate a couple bucks a week just go to asksciencemike.com and click on the support us on patreon icon on the right hand side of any post or kind of in the middle of the screen on the main page now if money's tight i get it money's tight for me a lot too so you can just rate the show on itunes or share an episode on social media and that helps the show grow if you want to ask a question on ask science mike there's a few ways to do that you can use hashtag asksciencemike or you can go to asksciencemike.com and fill out a form where you can either record a voicemail question or send in an email question now we've got a special episode coming up with our friends at biologos and we've got a ton of questions for this but if you have questions specifically about christianity and evolution the scientists and researchers at biologos are going to come on the show and answer questions for a special episode in the near future so i'd love for you to be a part of that just use the hashtag ask by a logos instead of the hashtag asksciencemike i want to thank andrew golucky for all of his work in pre-production and what he's been doing with the together groups it's marvelous those are starting to take off so if you're wondering if anyone is like you in your town that's going through these experiences of deconstruction learning to reconcile science and faith and questioning what they once believed go to ask sciencemike.com and click the together icon and you can probably find people in your city if not send us an email and we'll try to set up a group in your city i also want to thank greg nordin for producing the show i think greg works harder on ass science mike than i do and i think he's more responsible for how good it sounds than i am so greg thank you so much for your work and my dog jeff bodafort my my bro my friend my partner in crime wrote the ask science mike theme song i love it i sing it myself i gotta be honest i really do sometimes i sing my own theme song maybe i'm a narcissist anyway thanks for listening everybody and i can't wait to talk to you next [Applause] [Music]