People With Anxiety Perceive The World In A Fundamentally Different Way

''People who still believe the outdated notion that mental health conditions are "all in a person's head" have yet another reason to stop believing the myth: According to a new study in the journal Current Biology, those with anxiety perceive the world differently -- and it stems from a variance in their brains.

It all comes down to the brain's plasticity, or its ability to change and reorganize itself by forming new connections. These inherent changes in the brain dictate how a person responds to stimuli, and researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that people diagnosed with anxiety are less likely to be able to differentiate neutral or "safe" stimuli from threatening ones.

The scientists found that those with anxiety experienced lasting plasticity long after an emotional experience (aka a "stimulus") ended...''

by Lindsay Holmes