Poetry

Anxiety

The Biology of Neurosis

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Can’t relax nor think what to do
Amygdala is overactive
Atrophy of hippocampus
Androgens building up
Heart palpitations

Autonomic’s fight or flight
Hard to breathe
Get into parasympathetic mode
Vagus nerve needs to be stimulated

Hum, hum, ooh, aah
Belly breathing: breathe in, hold, breathe out
Adaptive stress response
Damn you reptilian brain

Expel some excess adrenaline
Okay, I’ll “fight”
Act it out
I’ll go running

Wonder which chemical is out of homeostatic balance
Dopamine: I’ll play some video games, listen to music
GABA: I have some L-theanine
Chocolate-> Tryptophan-> 5HTP, precursors of serotonin

Aw shit, but the caffeine
I’m kickin’ coffee, I swear