Why Your Brain Feels Stuck in Anxiety (Even When You Know You’re Safe)
If you’ve ever wondered why your brain won’t stop scanning for what could go wrong—even when you know you’re safe—you’re not alone. And you’re not broken.
Recent research in neuroscience is giving us a clearer picture of what’s actually happening in the brain during anxiety. One of the most useful explanations comes from a 2022 review by Kenwood, Kalin, and Barbas, which zooms in on the specific brain circuits involved in pathological anxiety and anxiety disorders.
This isn’t just academic theory—it helps explain what people with anxiety experience every day: intrusive worry, a sense of dread, difficulty calming down, and feeling like something bad is just around the corner.
Let’s break it down.
Your Brain’s Threat System: Built for Survival, Not Certainty
Anxiety is your brain’s way of preparing you for possible danger. The problem arises when that system becomes overactive—or when it fails to turn off after doing its job. In anxiety disorders, the brain keeps scanning for threat even when nothing is wrong.
The researchers point to a few key areas of the brain that are involved in this cycle:
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC): This area is responsible for planning, reasoning, and regulating emotion. When anxiety takes over, the PFC has trouble calming the system down.
Amygdala: This is your brain’s fear center. It tags things as dangerous—even when they’re not—and triggers a strong emotional reaction.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC): This part monitors for conflict or error. In anxiety, it can become hypersensitive, constantly flagging “problems” that aren’t real.
Striatum: Involved in habits and repetitive behavior, this area can keep you stuck in anxious loops.
Add to that the noradrenergic system, which floods the brain with arousal chemicals like norepinephrine, and you’ve got a full-body experience of anxiety that feels impossible to shut off.
Why This Matters
Understanding that anxiety is circuit-based—not just a personality flaw or lack of coping skills—can be a game-changer. It shifts the conversation away from "Why can't I calm down?" to "What is my brain trying to protect me from—and how can I work with it instead of against it?"
It also means that anxiety is not irrational. Your brain is trying to be helpful. It just gets stuck in overdrive.
How It Shows Up in Different Disorders
This circuit model helps explain why anxiety looks different in different people:
In Generalized Anxiety Disorder, the worry never stops. The brain’s error-checking systems are always active.
In Social Anxiety, the amygdala lights up in response to perceived judgment or disapproval.
In Panic Disorder, the brain misreads internal sensations as dangerous, creating false alarms.
In OCD, the threat system misfires and the brain sends repeated error signals, leading to compulsions.
Each version of anxiety has its own flavor—but they often share the same underlying circuit dysfunctions.
What Helps: Working with the System, Not Against It
Treatments that work tend to do one (or more) of the following:
Calm the alarm: through medication, exercise, sleep, or breath work
Retrain the response: using therapies like CBT, ERP (for OCD), or somatic work
Increase awareness and flexibility: using approaches like mindfulness, Internal Family Systems (IFS), or ACT
These strategies don’t “fix” the brain because it’s not broken—they help reorganize the system so it can respond more appropriately to real life, not just imagined danger.
Bottom Line:
Anxiety is not just mental—it’s biological, relational, and systemic. And when you understand the brain’s role, it becomes easier to stop blaming yourself and start working with your system in a more compassionate, effective way.
The alarm is real—but so is your ability to respond differently.
Let’s connect:
If your mind’s been running fire drills for threats that never arrive, there’s probably a reason—and a way through. Therapy isn’t about shutting down the alarm; it’s about learning how to hear it differently. If that sounds like a relief, let’s talk.