Overcoming Anxiety | Jonas Kolker | TEDxTheMastersSchool

before I delve deep into my personal life let me introduce myself my name is Jonas I'm in ninth grade I like reading sleeping and video games good now that we're all well acquainted I can begin for me third grade was kind of a sucky year all of my friends were in the other classes the teachers weren't the ones I wanted and I got pneumonia to boot but what really makes the year stand out for me was this one day in November my mom was driving me to school like she always did The Familiar sights passing by my window but as the school building came into view I began to feel a sinking sensation in my chest a sort of rush I began to hyperventilate breathing in and out much too fast and before I knew it I was crying my mom turned around confused like anyone would be in a situation like this and asked me what was wrong I didn't know what to say the concept of panic is not one that a third grader can completely comprehend or at least not this one so I simply said I don't feel good when she asked why I simply repeated I don't feel good at this point we were already at the school drop off Zone what would normally happen here on any given day is a teacher would help you out of the car and bring you into school well when the woman came to help me out of the car it was just too much I began to ball and eventually I had to be driven home this series of events repeated for about a week I would leave the house feeling fine I would get in the car feeling fine I would make about 78s of the trip feeling fine but on that last segment of the ride I would panic and I wouldn't be able to go to school my body would simply overload on fear and anxiety eventually my parents realized this was going to be a problem and I started seeing a psychiatrist to my horror the number one thing she told me was that I had to continue going to school like normal and I know it may be hard to comprehend this from outside of my perspective but to me this was a death sentence yet my parents were adamant and I was pulled out of the car and pushed into school each of the following days to put it lightly these moments were by far some of the worst I've ever experienced imagine if you will every inch of your body telling you something telling you not to do something your heartbeat booms as you shiver and Shake of the thought sweat forms on your brow as you try to avoid listening to the voices telling you what you already know hearing the sounds of your own yells over those of the people trying to bring you in into the place that your body is telling you not to go all of this combined in a mighty clanging Roar that drowns out all rational thought this was what I went through for more than four years of my life it wasn't fun but there was something important I began to notice over time something that confused me beyond all belief you see once I got into school things would get better 100% of the time no matter how awful horrible terrible miserable things got it would get better and it's from here that I would like to begin to talk about anxiety about one in five people has anxiety to a degree in which they need to make active changes to their lives in order to better manage it but anxiety is a universal emotion felt by all and when I told that story it may have been confusing to some of you uncomfortable to others but it's an important Story one that helped me learn a lot about myself and anxiety as a whole over the course of those eventful four years there were two main methods I was taught to better handle what I was going through these were cognitive behavioral therapy CBT for short and exposure now the first one cognitive behavioral therapy that's essentially the idea that you can work with your mind to better roll with how you feel and to my third grade mind no to my third through eighth grade mind I thought this meant I was going to be a superhero I thought that with the snap of my fingers I would forget the fear clowning through my head the pounding of my heart and suddenly smile and be AOK okay I don't need to tell you I was wrong no like most people I had a misconception about this in reality cognitive behavioral therapy is a collection of methods today often including mindfulness you know that mind over body stuff if you still don't know what I'm talking about picture if you will a friend who's really into meditation everyone has one but mindfulness is not meditation and it's not some mystical hippie jippy mumbo jumbo uh for example there was this one exercise I had to do where I would close my eyes and imagine waves slowly crashing over different parts of me for all of you trust TR close your eyes and try to picture these waves slowly rolling over and passing on just take a little time okay now for some of you that may have felt good and for others it may have just been weird but this would actually slow me down and here's the thing I'm not the only one a study from the University of Massachusetts found that those who are Adept in mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy these people could actually lower and control the activity in their posterior singulate cortex a part of the brain believe to control mind wandering and concentration I don't know about all of you but to me that's incredible but what about that second method I mentioned before exposure well that's essentially the idea that if you're scared of something the best way to handle it is to face the fear headon put yourself in a situation where you'll have to interact with it I remember in fifth grade I had a really bad day it had been two hours before I could bring myself into the school building and another two before I could enter the classroom I was fed up that night I went to my dad and I asked him dad why does this suck so much why do I have to keep putting myself through this to which he calmly turned around and responded with embrace the suck well it turns out that embracing the suck is actually an effective mechanism against fear and anxiety the University of Pittsburgh made a study regarding the effects of exposure on those with OCD obsessive compulsive disorder the study had three groups those who were taking medication those who were taking medication and going through exposure treatment and those who are only going through exposure treatment after the testing period was done each group would rank their anxiety levels here's what the study found the two groups that used exposure treatment ranked lower severity ratings than the group without this means that at least in this case exposure worked better than medicine so when it came to my panic attacks obsessive exposure and OCD and CBT made the difference when it came to OCD and relaxation exposure and CBT made the difference but what about all of you in the audience what if you don't have severe anxiety attacks what if you don't have obsessive compulsive disorder what if none of this applies to you well remember that statistic before about one in five people um having anxiety to a degree in which they need to take action guess how many people have anxiety in general five out of five people fear panic stress these are all things that we as human beings experience think about it from an evolutionary perspective these were the emotions that would keep us away from predators and many of the other ways early humans could probably end up dead but nowadays Society doesn't really have a much of a place for those feelings so even if our primitive fears aren't determining the fate of our Lives there's still an important part of them and it's always great to have good tools I had a friend who was terrified of my dog every time she came over it would be the same my dog Lucy by the way is about as intimidating as you can imagine for an animal to get scared by its own reflection so nothing changed until after many visits and a lot of prolonged exposure when my came over my friend didn't react she let Lucy Pat on over sniff give a quick lick and then walk away and this friend with a smile on her face continued on as though nothing had happened and this is exposure maybe not to a Monumental degree that will change this girl's life but exposure nonetheless and it helped her so imagine if she had known to go for it from the beginning she would have felt comfortable in no time but let's go beyond fears and Beyond anxiety can CBT and exposure help in situations that have nothing to do with these why of course they can exposure after all is simply a an extension of perseverance a fundamental method in life and CBT well a little while back I was curious about its uses outside of Stress Management so I did a quick Google search here's what I found and this and this so if CBT is so powerful and important if exposure can Empower us so much why aren't we taking these and making them vital parts of our everyday lives why aren't we all embracing the suck well that's the question isn't it and to that I have no answer thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 969,841

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Health, Mental health, Psychology, Schools

Id: A1anXJhVamc

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2017