Inside the Anxious Brain

Why Logic Goes Out the Window

Ever notice that when anxiety spikes, your thoughts spin out of control or vanish altogether? It isn’t that you’ve lost your mind or your focus. It’s your nervous system doing exactly what it’s designed to do: prioritise survival over reasoning. When danger is perceived, the brain’s planning hub, the prefrontal cortex, steps back while the amygdala and brain stem shift resources toward quick action. Blood rushes to your muscles, heart, and lungs. The result? Thinking feels blocked, decisions feel stuck, and you’re left reacting in the moment. Here’s a map of what’s happening and what you can do about it.

Anxiety’s Language of Survival

These aren’t just moods or labels. They’re states of energy moving through your body. Once you can recognise which state you’re in, you can begin to regulate effectively.

Fight: The Loaded Arrow

This state often manifests as urgency, racing thoughts, and tense muscles, fuelling a restless urgency to fix, prove, or win. Sleep or rest feels impossible as your system is in overdrive. Outwardly, this might look like quick, aggressive thinking; perhaps snapping at people or rushing through tasks, driven by a sense that you’re “under attack”.

To Regulate: Try slowing your breathing, move gently, and ground yourself with a sensory check. Feel your feet on the floor, notice a scent, or hold a textured object.

Flight: The Hummingbird

You might experience restlessness, jitteriness, and a mind that flits around looking for an exit. This often appears as pacing, fidgeting, or avoidance becoming automatic. Your attention flutters between tasks, searching for safety in motion. You sit down to reply to an email, but your mind keeps jumping to the next task, the next meeting, the next worry. That constant scanning is Flight.

To Regulate: Move with intention but keep it small. Take deliberate small steps, march in place, or scan your body to release tension. Grounding helps bring attention back to the present.

Fawn: The Weary Peacemaker

This state is characterised by a drive to please, over-explain, or people-please, as a way to feel safe. Boundaries blur as safety feels tied to others’ approval, and energy drains as connection is prioritised over authenticity. This can be observed as being “too helpful”, saying yes when you mean no, or bending your needs to fit others’ expectations.

To Regulate: Pause before you react. Practice a brief, honest boundary statement such as, “I’d like to help, but I also need…” Then return to your own needs with small, doable steps.

Freeze: The Frozen River

In freeze, the body halts while the mind hums on high alert. Muscles feel tense, breath is shallow, thoughts race, yet outwardly you appear still. This can be seen as difficulty initiating action, slow or absent speech, or a sense of being rooted in place even as the body stays wound tight.

To Regulate: Start with micro-movements to re-engage the body, such as shoulder rolls, finger taps, or gentle stretches. Slow your breath and allow small actions to return.

Flop: The Fallen Kite

If Freeze persists, energy drains and the mind disconnects like a kite that’s lost the wind and fallen quietly to the ground. Motivation wanes and attention drifts. This often presents as physical fatigue, reduced motivation, drifting attention, or feeling detached from what’s happening around you. After a long stressful day, you might slump on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling, unable to act.

To Regulate: Reconnect with your body slowly. Place a hand on chest, feel your feet on the floor, take a short walk, or try grounding exercises to reintroduce sensation.

Regulate Before you Reason

You cannot logic your way out of a nervous system in survival mode. Awareness comes first, then action. The faster you regulate, the faster your brain can resume thoughtful decision-making.

1. Pause and Name Your State: Put a label on what you’re feeling (e.g., “I’m in Fight” or “I’m in Freeze”). This cognitive step alone reduces intensity by giving your brain a map to work with.

2. Breathe: Try a steady pattern, like 4-6-4 (inhale 4, exhale 6, hold 4). This helps lower physiological arousal and reassures the nervous system.

3. Ground Your Body: Small movements, like a short walk or stretching, signals safety to the body without overwhelming it. Engage your senses with the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to anchor your awareness in the present moment. Name five things you see, four you feel, three you hear, two you smell, and one you taste.

4. Take a Tiny Action: Once you’re steadier, pick a tiny action you can complete (finish a message, wash a dish, take a shower). Small wins rebuild confidence and cognitive clarity.

5. Reflect: Which state do you want to move toward next time? What strategies helped you regulate?

From Defence to Delight

Anxiety is not your enemy; it is information. It’s a signal from a system designed to protect you. When you learn its language, what once felt like chaos becomes a compass for action and clarity. You stop fighting your biology and start working with it, transforming reactive anxiety into insight.

Those uncomfortable energy states are evidence your system is alive, alert, and adaptable — built to guide you, not betray you. It is a finely tuned instrument, orchestrating both survival and your capacity to think, feel, and act fully. When you tune into its signals, it can lead you toward moments of awe, wonder, pleasure, and deep connection. Anxiety, restlessness, or shutdown are not signs of weakness; they are proof your system is engaged and responsive.

By learning its patterns, practising quick regulation techniques, and reframing your relationship with these sensations, you can move from feeling hijacked to feeling in control. Honour its cues, trust its guidance, and let your nervous system move you from survival to living fully present. With professional support, you can navigate these states confidently and turn anxiety into actionable insight.