Title: The Relationship Between Anxiety and Memory Loss - Rivier Academics
Headings: Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress opens in new window with specific benefits, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Anxiety not only alerts you of dangers, but it helps you prepare for and pay attention to them.
Examining the Stress Response
How It Happens
The Link to Memory
How Anxiety and Memory Loss Are Connected
Understanding Anxiety

Content: If the threat wasn’t life-threatening, your body can overreact to the stressor, which may lead to negative effects on your physical and psychological health. The Link to Memory
The stress response helps you confront life-threatening situations, and its benefits extend to psychological functions like memory. This notion is verified in research, although there are caveats. Everyday anxiety can help you remember things better, according to a study published in Brain Sciences. Researchers split participants who had levels of anxiety into two groups: those with “low” and “high” anxiety. No participants had clinically significant levels of anxiety. The two groups were asked to answer questions about the spelling or meaning of words overlaid onto neutral images, like a house, or negative images, like a car accident. Memory performance didn’t differ based on anxiety levels, but the study found that the group with higher anxiety was able to remember words displayed over negative images. “ Their memories were more emotionally tinted,” said the study’s co-author Myra Fernandes, “and as a result rendered more memorable.”