Anxiety is comprised of symptoms of fear (e.g. phobias, panic) and worry (e.g. apprehensions, social worries, worries about panic attacks, obsessions). And the neurobiology of anxiety follows the symptoms of anxiety, where fear is regulated by a part of the brain called the amygdala, and worry is regulated by the cortico-striatal-thalamic-cortical (CSTC) circuit. So when you have anxiety symptoms of fear and worry, the amygdala is activated, which in turn leads to the fight or flight response and the physical symptoms of anxiety, and the CSTC circuit is activated, which leads to worry.
With anxiety, both the amygdala and CSTC circuits are hyperactive- to quell anxiety, both the amygdala and CSTC need to be suppressed. This can be done quite effectively with the various anxiety treatments.
