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: As a result, persistent anxiety and memory loss are associated. Examining the Stress Response
Understanding how anxiety and memory loss are connected begins with the stress response. Your body’s “fight-or-flight” reaction helps you counter real or perceived life-threatening situations quickly, and that includes when you’re anxious. How It Happens
The stress response begins in your brain, according to Harvard Health Publishing. When you perceive danger, a distress signal is sent from the eyes or ears to an emotional processing area of the brain (amygdala), which interprets the images and sounds. If they are considered dangerous, a distress signal is sent to the brain’s command center (hypothalamus). All of this takes place so quickly that you aren’t aware of what’s happening. That applies to a series of events that includes your body pumping adrenaline through your bloodstream, causing physiological changes like increased pulse rate and blood pressure, rapid breathing, and sharper senses. If your brain still perceives danger, it releases cortisol to keep your body on high alert. Cortisol is your body’s main stress hormone and acts like a built-in alarm system to control mood, motivation, and fear.