Understanding Why Your Brain Does What It Does When You Struggle with Anxiety and Depression

By Carissa Weber

Hello everyone! My name is Carissa Weber and I am excited to share my new blog, That Darn Amygdala! I know people have many questions about this blog, and what they can expect. So let’s take some time and dive into it!

I was inspired to write this blog ultimately from my career as a mental health therapist. Through the years of my practice, I have observed a lot of people battling the stigma of mental health. I noticed that my clients struggled more and more with following through with their own healthy coping skills because they didn’t understand what was making their brain do what it was doing: making them miserable.

Many of my clients struggle with the idea that coping skills serve more as a distraction from our mental health, not actually “fix” mental health. Boy, does this fuel the stigma! After starting therapy myself (and a ton of schooling later), I started to understand more about why the brain was having issues and how the coping skills were essentially rewiring the brain to be healthy.

The more I started to present the science behind why healthy coping skills work, the number of clients I saw actually using those coping skills increased. It is because of this observation, I decided that this blog was needed. Plus, through my research, I found there wasn’t many blog out there that described what was going on in the brain.

Through this blog, I hope to share the knowledge I have amassed to assist people in managing their depression and anxiety symptoms a bit better. In my post, you will see that there is humor, sarcasm, and scientific facts that help support mental health. It is my hope, that we can slowly change the stigma surrounding mental health and help people better understand their own power in changing their brain.

How will this blog work? Let me take some time to outline it: Each month, I will cover a new topic. There will be a general short version of the information available for all to read. For those of you who want to go deeper with the information, I will be providing a subscription to additional resources. Those resources look like printable handouts, extended blog posts, and (hopefully) an e-book in the near future.

Coming next time: The limbic system (or as I like to call it the, “go system” including the star of our show, That Darn Amygdala!) and the prefrontal cortex (referred to as the “stop system”).

I’m excited for your reading and look forward to continue to educate (and entertain) my readers. Thank you for taking time today to take care of yourself by reading!