Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

Content Warning: This guide discusses anxiety, depression, and addiction.

If a response or behavior is adaptive, it is helpful to human survival. For instance, if a person reacts quickly to avoid an oncoming car, their automatic fear response was an adaptive feature that helped them survive. Dr. Judson Brewer explains that many aspects of fear are adaptive, or helpful, because they effectively aid our survival; however, anxiety is a byproduct of fear that is unhelpful.

Brewer defines addictions as habits that have adverse consequences. These habits do not have to be catastrophic, such as drug addiction, but could manifest as everyday dependencies such as overeating, or compulsively shopping or gaming. The author emphasizes how people can inadvertently form an addiction to anxiety itself when they allow their anxiety to trigger feel-good distractions such as eating or internet scrolling.

These factors maximize addictive behavior by prompting more cravings and rewarding addiction more intensely. Brewer identifies two addiction maximizers: Intermittent Reinforcement and Immediate Availability.