Why am I like this? What happens to our bodies and brains when anxiety takes over

Doomscroll Remedy

What’s been keeping you up at night lately?

Is it the pandemic? Has work been stressing you out lately? Or the fact your Great Aunt thinks the world is run by lizard people? Oh, or maybe it’s the fact that the ocean’s full of plastic – that seems like something you should probably be worried about, doesn’t it?

And now you’re probably not feeling great – maybe your chest is a little tighter than before.

How do you usually get over that feeling? What’s really happening in our body when anxiety takes over?

Lots of us don’t even need a reason to feel anxious: some of us are just built like that.

Turns out, humans actually evolved with this anxiety thing to help us survive as a species, and our brains learned some pretty neat ways to use fear in order to keep us alive.

But what use is it to us now? And how can we manage it, so it still serves a purpose in our modern world?

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Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios.

Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, in partnership with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.