 Onision just did a video about anxiety as well as empathy towards people who have anxiety and I greatly appreciate the fact that he did this. Some of you know I cover different celebrities as well as YouTubers who talk about symptoms of mental illness but one of the issues is this. I hope you realize this is all coming from someone who does not have an anxiety disorder. I'm just someone who slightly understands anxiety disorders. What's up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and I am somebody who suffers from a generalized anxiety disorder. So there are many different anxiety disorders. Social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD is even a form of anxiety. There's also panic disorders as well as phobias. I'm here to pick up where Onision left off and I'm going to talk a little bit from the perspective of somebody with anxiety. So if you have a friend who struggles with anxiety what you could do to help as well as from the perspective of somebody with anxiety and what you can do to start getting into the solution. So first let's explain what anxiety is. There's a part of the brain called the amygdala and this is one of the most primitive parts of the brain. It is responsible for fight flight or freeze. Now most people who get anxiety that part of the brain lights up when it is triggered by something. For example social anxiety is triggered by social events. Not just like getting on stage and talking to an audience but you can get social anxiety just by being in large crowds. Then there's also PTSD which is a form of anxiety that's triggered by a memory but this is an interesting one because that memory can spark based on a lot of different triggers. For example someone who just returned from war they might have their PTSD triggered by a loud noise. Now I'm somebody who struggles with a generalized anxiety disorder. What this means is that it literally takes nothing from my amygdala to light up and me to start freaking out and it's very scary. Like Onision said in his video it's this feeling that you get in your chest. Me I've noticed that I get a lot of tension up in my head when I feel this anxiety it's almost like I know what my brain's doing and it's very difficult to deal with. I am somebody who's on Lexapro which is a non-narcotic anti-anxiety slash antidepressant medication but even that only does so much but what these medications are designed for is to help deactivate the amygdala. But when anxiety happens you literally feel like you're going insane most of the time. Like when my generalized anxiety disorder fires up it is me just trying to rationalize with myself and explain like Chris there's nothing wrong. Chris you have a roof over your head you have money in the bank your son is fine everything's fine but it's like the brain doesn't want to listen to logical thought that comes from the prefrontal cortex which is right up here in your brain. If you're somebody who has a friend who struggles with anxiety there's some things that you can do and most of all is just be compassionate be understanding you don't have to fix them. That's the struggle that a lot of friends have is that we think that we have to fix that person but the reality is it is completely out of your control. If there was a button on the back of my head that you can just push to deactivate my anxiety like that'd be amazing but that's not how it works. Most of all what we need when we're having some type of panic attack or anxiety episode we just need somebody who understands that that's what's happening. What I will let everybody know who struggles with anxiety the best thing that you can do is to communicate it to the people in your life. Now one thing that I'll make a later video on is how to get the right people in your life because you need people who you can say listen I'm having a kind of an anxiety episode and I just want you to understand that right now and there's one of two types of friends there's the one who will understand that and they'll be like okay and the best thing you can do as a friend is say what can I do to help is there anything that I can do and sometimes the best thing you can do is just leave them alone and wait for the cycle to pass then there's a second type of friend and they get upset they get offended they get angry or they get upset with you like Onision said in his video like all of us who struggle anxiety we wish that we could just flip it off but it's not that simple so hopefully you have friend type number one who is able to be compassionate and empathetic towards your anxiety now if you are watching this and you are somebody who struggles with anxiety here are the tips that I will give you first off get it treated go see a medical professional now regular family practitioners can only prescribe certain medications okay so my lexapro I get it from my family practitioner she can prescribe that I will never tell you to use xanax real quick though the reason why doctors prescribe xanax all willy nilly they just make it rain xanax is because it's very quick acting that medication quickly deactivates the brain but the reason why people get addicted to it and the reason why people overdose and die from it is because it also triggers dopamine in the brain that makes you want more again first step go see your doctor if your doctor cannot help you with your anxiety disorder or cannot diagnose your anxiety disorder that's when you need to go see a psychologist or a psychiatrist a psychiatrist has the ability to prescribe medications but take it from me stick to non-narconics they work just as well you just don't get high from them as many of you know I work at a dual diagnosis treatment facility which means at my rehab we handle addiction as well as mental illness because most people who struggle with an addiction they also struggle with a mental illness and I often explain to them that I was started off on lexapro at about 10 milligrams and eventually I built up a tolerance it wasn't working anymore my anxiety was still flaring up and I couldn't control it and then the doctor up my dosage to 20 milligrams and then after I got tolerant to that I went back to my doctor and I was like hey I'm still getting anxiety it took about a few months in between and then she said sorry that's the highest dose now as a prescription drug addict my brain says well chris you should just take two or three of those suckers but I don't live that way anymore so the best advice I can give you is to start practicing meditation a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy they think it won't work because anxiety is a disorder where our thoughts don't stop racing but let me give you this meditation pro tip meditation is not about stopping thoughts meditation is about noticing thoughts okay so that's my first meditation tip for anybody out there who thinks they can't meditate just because their brain doesn't stop the brain on average has between 50 and 70 thousand thoughts per day it would be impossible to stop your brain from thinking so take that as a sigh of relief because you can start meditating I've done another video where I will link in the info card on my three favorite mindfulness meditation apps that are absolutely free so make sure that you check them out question of the day what do you do when your friend is struggling with an anxiety attack how do you help them how do you comfort them leave your comments down below because I want the community to see what you do to help your friends and do these things work do they not work and if it doesn't work leave questions down there because I guarantee someone out there can give you a suggestion as to what might help you help your friend who struggles with anxiety but anyways if you liked this video give it a thumbs up if you are new here I'm always making videos about mental health mental illness addiction recovery and all that stuff so click right below this little box right here and hit that little round subscribe button and also if you check over to the side of me you will see other videos click or tap on them because I have a bunch of videos about how you can improve your mental health thanks for watching I'll see you next time