How to tell if your anxiety system needs recalibrating: And how to do it

When I attended a workshop on helping clients with anxiety issues several years ago, the presenter gave an excellent metaphor for understanding and addressing these issues. He said that anxiety operates like an alarm system.

When that system is working properly, anxiety is helping us. In contrast, when the system is not working properly, it often causes us problems. In these instances, we need to take steps to get the anxiety system working properly again by ‘recalibrating’ it. This process is analogous to having a repair person get our home alarm or smoke alarm system working properly again by recalibrating it.

But how do you know if your anxiety system needs recalibrating? And if it does, how do you achieve this recalibrating? I will discuss these matters in the following sections.

Signs that your anxiety system is properly calibrated

A properly calibrated alarm features the alarm being activated when it should and not being activated when it should not. That is, the alarm goes off in genuine danger situations like a fire but does not go off in non-danger situations such as there not being a fire.

In a similar manner, a properly calibrated anxiety system is activated when it should and is not activated when it should not. That is, the anxiety response is activated in situations in which there is a real danger or threat or challenge which the system prepares us to face. It does not go off in situations in which there is not a real danger or threat or challenge.

Signs that your anxiety system needs recalibrating

An improperly calibrated alarm entails the alarm being activated when it should not be activated. With these ‘false alarms’, the alarm goes off in situations which are not dangerous.

In a similar manner, an improperly calibrated anxiety system is activated when it should not be activated. That is, the anxiety response is activated in situations in which there not a real danger or threat or challenge.

How to recalibrate your anxiety system

Recalibrating your anxiety system is akin to recalibrating alarms of other kinds. In both instances, the task is to get the alarm system returned to the point that it goes off when it should and does not go off when it should not.

Recalibrating your anxiety system involves two steps: 1. Activate your anxiety system regularly in situations in which it has been going off inappropriately—that is, when there is not a genuine danger, threat or challenge present; 2. Collect corrective information while doing so. That is, while your anxiety system is activated you need to gather data which lets you know that the fears you have are not based on evidence.

Recalibrating your anxiety system with these two steps is best done by conducting behavioural experiments in which you gradually expose yourself to situations which cause the ‘false alarms’ to occur. For example, were your anxiety system to need recalibrating as a result of your being involved in a car accident, subsequent to the accident you might have false alarms involving your anxiety system being activated in relatively safe driving situations.

Recalibrating would entail you regularly getting into these safe driving situations to activate your anxiety system while you gather ‘corrective information’. This would take the form of collecting data from behavioural experiments which demonstrate to you that the feared outcomes you have in these situations do not come to pass. This includes your belief that you cannot cope with your anxiety while driving or perform effectively behind the wheel.

The result of this ‘gradual exposure plus behavioural experiments’ work would be that your anxiety system while driving would eventually return to being properly calibrated. That is, your anxiety system would be activated in driving situations in which a genuine danger, threat or challenge is present but it would not be activated when such conditions are not present.

The good news is that you can implement these steps to recalibrate your anxiety system in any situation in which recalibrating is required—driving or otherwise. It may be helpful to work with a psychologist who is skilled in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) if you would like to implement the steps which were discussed in this article.

May you recalibrate your anxiety system when required,

Dr. Pat