If you’re somebody who just can’t relax, quit stressing over it. All the herbal teas and yoga curls in the world probably won’t change your basic nature. A new University of Wisconsin study suggests that your jittery brain has probably been wired that way since childhood.
The recent UW study, published last week in the Public Library of Science Web site, is the latest addition to a mounting trove of evidence that the brains of individuals who suffer from anxiety and extreme shyness are wired differently than those of their calmer peers. Even in situations most people would find relaxing, the brains of these keenly sensitive people appear to be stuck in a constant state of high alert.
“The brain machinery underlying the stress response seems to be always on in these individuals,” said Dr. Ned Kalin, the study’s author. Kalin is chair of the UW-Madison Department of Psychiatry and director of the HealthEmotions Institute.