Danielle Thornton (anxiety and OCD recovery coach) explains that anxiety, OCD, and depression are maintained by repeated neural pathways—habit-like patterns of thought and behavior that deepen over time. She argues that intentionally choosing different responses (using ERP, mindfulness, acceptance, and CBT techniques) and practicing them consistently builds new, healthier neural pathways; progress takes time and support, and relapses can occur under stress. The talk closes with offers of coaching, affordable and one-on-one options, and a call to subscribe and comment.
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Welcome back. My name is Danielle Thornton. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach. And today we're going to talk about how you can more permanently rewire your brain so you stop suffering from anxiety, OCD and even depression. So first, let's talk a little bit about what's happening with anxiety, OCD and depression. Right? You're getting messages from your brain that are going through neural pathways. A lot of you may have heard of neural pathways. And every time you send a message in your brain, every time you get a thought, every time you do a behavior, it's going down a pathway. The more that happens, the deeper that pathway gets. It's like a riverbed. The more water that runs through it, the deeper it gets.
That's why a lot of times when we suffer from anxiety, OCD or depression, it feels so automatic. These thoughts and these behaviors feel very automatic because our brain is creating habits and this relates to habits as well. So when we want to change our behavior or change our thoughts or our brain, it's not easy, right? It feels uncomfortable. When you have anxiety or OCD or depression, your brain is sending you these negative thoughts really regularly. And the problem is you're getting stuck in these negative thoughts. With anxiety, it's what if thoughts. With ocd, it's also fear based what if thoughts followed by compulsions. And with depression, it's negative thoughts that cause hopelessness. The people that don't struggle with anxiety, OCD or depression get the same thoughts. Maybe not as many, but they get the same types of thoughts and they choose not to dive into them and give them attention and believe them. Okay? So then these thoughts fade away and they don't get as many of them. Now, when we struggle with anxiety and OCD and depression, we tend to believe these thoughts a little bit more. We spend more time focusing on them. And a lot of this is not your fault. It's just we don't have the coping mechanisms on how to deal with these. And typically we've picked up these habits unconsciously from other people, typically a parent. So we have to learn what to do differently. And the way that we do this is we get help in learning how to do this and we get support. And that's where I come in. So helping people with anxiety, OCD and depression, we start to learn that when these thoughts show up, we can choose a new behavior, we can do something different with it. Now, the reason why it feels so uncomfortable and difficult is because your brain is used to going in this direction, okay? And most of Your brain is telling you to go in this direction. What we're doing is we're choosing to go in a different direction. And that feels difficult and uncomfortable and sometimes wrong because there's a big part of your brain that it wants you to go in this direction. It thinks that's the right direction. It's not. It's going to lead you to continued suffering. So when we choose to go in a different direction, with erp, mindfulness, acceptance, and even CBT techniques for depression, we are creating new neural pathways. We're rewiring our brain. Ok? And when we start doing this or when we're really struggling, it feels difficult, right? It feels wrong, it feels uncomfortable. Our brain's telling us to go in this direction, but we know where this direction leads. This direction leads to more suffering and deepening of those neural pathways. So we want to create new ones. We want to go in a different direction. And when you start to do that, it takes time and effort and consistency. We can't just do it once or twice. We have to do it every single time. We need to do it. But the more we do it, the more those neural pathways get deeper. We're creating a stronger neural pathway in a different direction, a healthier direction and a more effective direction. Now, a lot of you might be wondering, why can't I do this? And then I just stay in that direction. The problem is we have been developing these neural pathways for years, often 20, 30 plus years, okay? We developed certain ways of thinking, we've developed anxiety, and it's grown and developed over time. And then life events kind of reinforce it and create more uncertainty. And life is hard. The older you get, the more difficult things you go through. Okay? So the longer you've been going in this direction, the harder it's going to be to go in this direction. But the more you go in the other direction with erp, CBT techniques, acceptance, you're deepening these neural pathways and you're making it easier and more automatic to go in that direction. All right? Now, when life gets really hard, when really stressful things happen, when we have big triggers, it's going to happen. It's part of life. The brain is overwhelmed. And when we're overwhelmed, we fall into old patterns because it's easier. It's easier for the brain. The brain knows more easily how to go in this direction than it does this one. It's been doing it longer.
So we might have to work a little harder at going in the effective and healthier direction when life gets tough. But the more we do it, the deeper we develop that neural pathway. We're rewiring our brain to go in this direction, this direction, that gets easier, that gives us better results. We're not staying stuck in negative thoughts, whether that's hopeless thoughts with depression, the sadness or the anxiety and the discomfort, the uncertainty and doubt with ocd. So you really have two choices now if you want help with this. I have done this myself. It works every single time. It takes time and consistency, right? It takes somebody who can teach it to you, who can help you continue going in that direction. And that's why a lot of people need continued support. Consistency is super important here. Ok? So you have to know what to do and then you actually have to practice and consistently do it over time. Ok? No matter where you're at in the process, I am here to help. I have cost effective solutions for people who really struggle financially. I have one on one solutions for people as well. And I am here to help you. I promise you this can get better. You can rewire your brain more permanently. I, I've done it. I see it happen every day. So please don't lose hope. Anyway, I hope this was helpful. Comment on this. Let me know what you liked. Let me know what you're struggling with. Make sure to subscribe to this channel if you want alerts of other videos that I'm doing that helps me to know that what I'm doing is helpful for you and that you like it. And I hope you guys have a great day.
